Diagnosed with OCD, Rebecca Schiffman has struggled with “moral perfectionism” for much of her life. She brings those inner demons to the fore on a new album that grapples with the concept of living a decent, humane existence amid the realities of today’s world.
Available July 25 on cassette via Lost Sound Tapes and self-released digitally, Before The Future is the most collaborative of Schiffman’s four solo efforts. It was co-produced by Chris Cohen (Deerhoof), Tim Carr (Perfume Genius, Hand Habits), SASAMI and Luke Temple (Here We Go Magic) and features contributions from Steve Marion (Delicate Steve), Davin Givhan (Detangler), Oliver Hill (Kevin Morby, Sam Evian), Sam KS (War On Drugs, St. Vincent), Kosta Galanopoulos (Cassandra Jenkins), Emily Elkin (Damien Jurado, Angel Olsen) and several others.
While the title track came to Schiffman as she was grieving over the untimely death of a childhood friend, “Bubble Of Love” has slightly more upbeat origins. “The song traces a relationship from the beginning bubble of love, where everything is exciting and new and attraction runs high,” says the native New Yorker, who’s currently living in Los Angeles with her Emmy-winning writer/producer husband Scott Jacobson and their young son. “When you don’t know someone well, they can be a blank slate to project on. Anything is possible—you could live anywhere with this person. Later, when it turns out that two fully formed people with different agendas are here, the bubble can become claustrophobic.”
To get its point across, “Bubble Of Love” most notably references Albert Brooks’ classic 1985 film Lost In America, where a couple attempts to assuage their midlife woes by selling everything and hitting the road in an RV. “The stop-motion video was directed by Renata Zeiguer, who’s also a songwriter,” says Schiffman. “I met her because she was playing keyboards in Delicate Steve around the time Steve Marion was playing on my album—including this song.”
From the beginning, Schiffman knew she wanted “Bubble Of Love” to be a more straightforward rock tune. “It’s different from my usual m.o.,” she says. “When I wrote the song, I was thinking about Teenage Fanclub, the Stone Roses, the Pretenders and Robyn Hitchcock. I’m not sure if any of that comes across sonically, but the spirit is in there somewhere.”
We’re proud to premiere Rebecca Schiffman’s “Bubble Of Love.”
—Hobart Rowland; photo by Viviane Black
