Oakland musician Kathryn Mohr is gearing up for the release of her debut album, Waiting Room, on January 24 via The Flenser. Written and recorded in eastern Iceland over the course of a month, the record was born from windowless concrete rooms draped in strings of multicolor lights and bouts of severe isolation. The songs allowed Mohr to confront the terrible realities of human existence, specifically physical and emotional violence and the loss of purpose in a world designed to stamp out individuality and sublimate creativity. It’s a bitter collection that attempts to find ways in which we can address and release the trauma that seeks to stifle all rational (and irrational) thought.
On her new single, “Elevator”, Mohr evokes PJ Harvey and early Hole, finding revelation in reverb and dissonance. Her voice melds with the hissing atmosphere and becomes just another instrument in her sonic arsenal. Her guitar sounds as though it’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown – stretched to its limits and running on fumes – still lashing out in all directions. The combination of her operatic vocals and apocalyptic guitar reverberations is something to behold, a series of eruptions tailor-made to burn the world to ashes.
“Young people are exposed to all sorts of media, without reason or care,” Mohr laments, speaking to the origins of the song. “It’s the same in life – you never expect what will happen next or how horrible it might be. One second you’re watching a nature documentary, the next moment autoplay is showing someone getting their arm ripped off in an elevator. The unexpectedness of horror, how it’s thrust upon you, imposed, by other people, governments, personal demons, algorithms or pure chance is shocking to me.”
Sometimes I find it hard to escape the feeling that terrible things come from a sinister source, something or someone who feeds off of suffering, takes pleasure in it. It’s a really dark place to be, when I start to feel that way.“
Listen to “Elevator” below.
Waiting Room is due out January 24 via The Flenser. You can pre-order it here. Follow Mohr on Facebook and Instagram.
