The singer-songwriter is searching for meaning from the void.
The name Conduit conjures something. It’s a mode of transportation. A vessel, as much cosmic as it is engineered.
On her Only Human EP, Conduit stands in all white against a grassy background, her pink hair like a flame on her head. Perhaps here to deliver us, perhaps here to take. Conduits often flow both ways. Below is a condensed interview between John Aloszka and Conduit:
So what’s the story behind the name Conduit?
So it’s kind of spiritual; I’m a spiritual person. I don’t know if you believe in energy. It also has to do with Electric Universe Theory. So it’s metaphysical. But it’s also very physical, right? So, like, the idea that we’re all like mediums for whatever art form we gravitate towards. And it’s kind of just about being a vessel for kind of like a higher purpose.
And what do you think that purpose is?
I think it’s different for everyone. You know, if we want it to be super broad, it’s like, higher forms of feeling empathy, love, kindness, compassion. You know, that can be a higher purpose, lifting people up, empowering people, while empowering yourself. That’s, you know, I feel like for me very specific, but I think that it gets as broad and objective, and also subjective. Like, everybody has their own perspective and narrative, you know, and in that there’s a unique experience and wisdom about, you know, your life that only you know.
Your partner lives in New York, how does having a long distance relationship impact the intimacy or empathy of your music?
I actually am coming out with a queer pop EP in June. Which is very specifically I feel like Only Human is very kind of abstract. It’s about me, it’s about everybody. It’s about depression, and getting out of that. And then it’s like, when I write songs that are like, not ambiguous, but very specific about lived experience. Sometimes instead of calling it queer pop, I call it yearn pop. Because the distance and the missing you know, they say the heart grows fonder.
Why is it important to release a queer pop album, call it queer pop, be loud about it?
It’s not a secret that gay artists are cherry picked in the industry, right? When they’re allowed to talk about what, especially women. So it’s like as a queer person, I feel like it’s important to talk about women liking women relationships. You hear that they’re roommates a lot. But also just like from the women’s lens, talking about pleasure. And talking about like, feeling empowered. And also talking about love, especially when we take it back to this: it’s woman, but it’s also gay. The sapphic nature of love is like, I don’t know, I feel like it’s very sweet in nature, you hear things like “u-haul,” you know, that may be over some people’s heads.
What’s your writing process like?
I have been writing music since I was really young. And it started with poetry. So it definitely started with lyrics. When I was like five, I started writing songs, listening to songs, understanding that there’s repeated parts and non-repeating patterns, counting versus, counting choruses. Then I taught myself instruments, put it all together. The more I’ve learned instruments, and then went on to study music, the more it’s like, I can have musical ideas and deliver them instrumentally. And then when I started producing a couple years ago, now I’m adding this whole other element, not just having a guitar, making a progression or something. But making an entire beat with something that I can’t play all at one time without this equipment. And then maybe I’m putting lyrics over that. Sometimes I make instrumental music I don’t even put lyrics over. The only thing I feel like I always do is I write lyrics by myself.
You seem to gravitate toward certain colors. Your Spotify profile is red. Your hair is pink. And then you’re often in this like white ensemble. What inspires these colors? Is it a choice?
I used to do a lot more sound healing; it’s all about wavelengths, vibration, etc. It gets very abstract, but I learned a lot about just like sound has psychological biological effects on us. So does color. And it’s like when you wake up and you feel like you’re drawn to a certain color. Like, what is it doing and diving into that. And ever since then, ever since I had this experience of a couple years or so working with this, like clairvoyant and color therapist––just how I use sound and color. I wake up some days, and I don’t want any color. You know, it’s too loud. Some days I wake up, I don’t want to even listen to music. I just want silence. And some days I wake up and I’m like, I feel warm colors.
If I had to force you to write a word in Sharpie on your forehead and then walk around Times Square, what would that be?
Okay, there’s been three words: Perseverance, patience, trust. I feel like I can be a very active person. I have a lot of energy, physically. And I have a lot of mental energy. And sometimes, you know, especially in our society, do do do, workaholic. All you do, that’s your worth. Sometimes, we all lose, right? And it’s not about always winning. It’s about your attitude after you lose. It’s about perseverance. That’s what entrepreneurship is about––I’m really into entrepreneurship. I’m really into empowerment. But perseverance is what gets that higher vision across, you know, it’s not always winning. It’s not winning every day. It’s just perseverance. And sometimes that’s patience. Patience, when you lose, patience that you don’t actually know everything. And that even though today’s a losing day, you’re going to have the best attitude about that. Because you have more wins coming, and you don’t wanna be attached to losing. And a lot of times, I feel like that takes trust, right? Even when you’ve lost this hand, having trust that, like, you know, that’s just this one instance. You’re not down for the count.
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