Genevieve Stokes Explores The Light and The Darkness of Life with Her Sophomore EP: Catching Rabbits
Interview + Words by Allyson J.L. Clayton
Photo by Abbie Pitre
Genevieve Stokes, freshly 21, started making music right out of highschool. Growing up alongside of her songs, she feels a natural evolution in her body of work. “For someone who has a static view of me and has only seen that body of work,” speaking of her debut EP Swimming Lessons, “what I’m making now will be surprising.” “But for me, it feels so natural. [It was] this, like, gradual transformation, you know?” Stokes said on our early afternoon Zoom call.
“Habits,” the first track off of Catching Rabbits, draws the listener in with its eerily whimsical piano notes that are reminiscent of Panic! At The Disco’s off-the-beaten-path hit “Nine in the Afternoon.” The lyrics, though, tell a story of frustration with being the way that you are.
Waisting the days to forget
That I’m losin’ it.
Stuck in my ways and I
Hate that I’m used to it
…
I don’t know why I try anymore…
Angst and feeling upset with the pace of change as you grow up is such a universal feeling–it’s 20+ years of a grieving process. Having an outlet such as songwriting, Genevieve Stokes is able to take a step back from her intense emotions.
“It has taught me that my emotions are temporary. I’ll look back at something that felt so real while I was writing it and it doesn’t hit me the same way. [I’m able] to take something new from it. Having that vantage point of “this is really painful now, but it’s not going [to be] eventually.”
Falling farther down the rabbit hole that is growing up and realizing not everything is as it seemed as a child, “Can I”, the second song on the EP, opens with the heart-breaking line “There’s a girl out there somewhere//you shattered.”
Alice In Wonderland imagery was very present for Stokes when she was writing this EP, crawling her way out of one of the darkest periods of her life. She said, “There’s a lot of darkness in fairytales. Revisiting them, at this age, is seeing past the magic and the [beauty] and light and all of these things. But, there is also a darkness. Things aren’t what you would expect, you’re unraveling what you’ve known.”
I’m still making a mess and I’m still cleaning up
I’m still crying on my childhood sheets
And I’m still waiting for my mom to pick me up
I’m still chasing all my childhood dreams
As the listener falls deeper into the story, they are met with the sultry grunge of “You & Me.” With haunting echoes and dark undertones, the third track on the EP is deep in this disorienting headspace of begging someone to love you the way they said they would.
Do I not give you what you need?
You say I’m everything you wanted
But it’s never enough
No, it’s never enough
Speaking to that feeling of unraveling the darkness of life, Stokes said, “I feel like it’s easy to descend into madness. If you get stuck in that fear of the unknown, it can feel really scary. Like it’s almost taunting you.”
The incredibly special fourth track, “Book of Memories,” feels like a lullaby with Stokes’ soft and comforting vocal delivery. The lyrics feel reflective in a slightly desperate way, trying not to let past mistakes and people who didn’t work out flood your consciousness, eventually giving up those feelings of anguish to the “the hands of time.”
I don’t really know who I am
I see it all in flashes
Until the memory crashes
And I do it all again
In the accompanying visuals for “Book of Memories”, Stokes is seen running backwards, hand-in-hand with a mysterious masked person, presumably, actually putting her worries “in the hands of time,” like the song suggests. Time being represented as this almost otherworldly creature is incredibly accurate to my own feelings towards time. It is this ever-present parallel–something you can never escape but rather have to learn to live alongside with.
You’re holding out your hand
I’m crying but I don’t know why
Screencap from “Book Of Memories” Music Video directed by Haoyan of America
The most viscerally poetic track, “Mara,” feels like you are in a perpetual dream state, almost unable to wake up. With a masterful use of trance-like repetition in her lyrics, I feel transported with this song.
“I started having these really vivid dreams. When I would write, I would try to go back to those dream places. I am always seeking to have each song feel like it brings you to a new place that you’ve never experienced,” Stokes relayed the kind of feeling she hopes to portray to her listeners.
With lyrics like, “bits and pieces of my past mistakes//falling from the rafters of the house I made”, I get dollhouse imagery and remember being a child who was too hard on herself. And with, “I’ve been screaming so loud / I’m gonna wake up the house,” I feel the uncontrollable anxiety that overcame me at such a fragile age when I thought too hard about the eventuality of all the things you cannot control.
Growing up is growing into a more worldly perspective, filled with more nuance, and, inevitably, more questions. I asked Genevive how her world-view has changed after writing this EP and exploring the loss of innocence that comes with adulthood. She said, “I’m more willing to mess up now. I had a need to make everything perfect. [Because] if I didn’t, the world would judge me. I’m allowing myself to be more vulnerable in my music because growing up, I was really sensitive and felt a lot of shame. Going forward, I don’t have such a severe view of the world. People will either like it, or they don’t and they will move on. But I’m not getting in my own way anymore.”
“17,” the final track on the EP, concludes this journey down the rabbit hole, the listener finally making their way out of the darkness with Stokes, being able to look back at where they were with more of a sense of hope than before. With distorted guitar sounds that remind me of church organs, and the sounds of waves crashing and people talking at the end, the song feels almost spiritual–full of lyrics that can be held close to your heart.
The mask I hid under fell apart
Growing up isn’t growing hard
…
So much love
And do much light I haven’t seen
