Born to an Indian mother and Pakistani father, the producer-singer injects a sense of humor into her upcoming EP ‘Sick!’
Anurag Tagat
Oct 29, 2020
Brooklyn, New York-based artist Laura Jinn is half-Indian and half-Pakistani. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Inhabiting the experimental pop space in Brooklyn, artist and producer Laura Jinn says she’s always been careful about whom she lets into her “creative zone.” That’s understandable, considering Jinn’s multicultural upbringing as well as a distinctively intimate yet humorous juxtaposition that she’s adapted for her music.
Born to a mother who hailed from a Hindu Indian family and a father who came from Muslim Pakistani roots, Jinn recalls plainly that she would go to Bharatnatyam classes and attend Sunday school at a masjid the same day. She adds, “Those two things felt a lot more similar to each other than they did to soccer practice. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate the important differences between the cultures that make me, and I’ve also experienced some disorientation and pain at their present conflict.”
Releasing two songs so far off her upcoming debut EP Sick! — “I’m Driving to Target” and the title track — Jinn’s third release is an unsettling yet seemingly humorous song called “Memories of Trees.” Inspired by alt-pop artists such as Britain’s Fka Twigs as well as Grimes, Jinn bottles the ever-relevant feelings of “both and neither” on her latest song. She says about the track, “I was thinking wistfully of a really happy and special time in my life, but that time was also quite dark and intense. In many ways it was so happy and special because of that intensity.”
The five-track Sick! — releasing on November 20th — was written in 2019 about sickness and it feels prescient considering the pandemic. Jinn took a look at her demos in February this year as the coronavirus loomed large over the globe and said she felt small. “There was a moment, maybe, of like ‘Ha-Ha, I called it…’ but mostly I felt sad and scared. I didn’t really know what to do. I wondered if I should scrap the entire project. The songs were funny, and I was like, ‘Should they not be funny? Is this not funny?’ But it felt somehow worse to pivot to seriousness,” she says.
Listen to “Memories of trees” below. Follow the artist here.
