‘Gatekeeper’ by BESS is a transcendent piece that blends electronica sub-genres like synth-wave and electro-pop to introduce an experience that feels heady and weightless. The lyrics describe a bodied experience, that is rooted in what feels like an abstract waviness in the song’s production.
The song’s synths pulsate and bounce through, creating an ebbing sensation that comes back and forth in waves. This effect seems to help ease the listener into the song’s soundscape, which in turn allows the song’s lyrics to penetrate and stick.
The lyrics of ‘Gatekeeper’ hold in them a concrete sense of detachment that is seemingly propagated by its abstract production. This line by the song’s climax really highlights this sort of detached, desolate mood:
“…What are the genitals anyway:
It’s just blood and muscles,
Skin,
Shame…”.
These images give the lyrics a sense of abstractness, though the imagery is grounded and concrete.
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‘Gatekeeper’ attempts to call out discrimination within patriarchal systems while also recognising that one holds a hard-won place within these systems. There’s a point in the song where the singer seems to be on a paradoxical seesaw of sorts.
“…You want to tell me I’m wrong, what I’m sing and saying and what I’m doing…
…You(‘re) gatekeeping and trying to turn me around…”.
But,
“…Oh don’t leave me…”.
The song recognises where it stands, and calls it out with a sense of detachment and grounding.
‘Gatekeeper’ by BESS is a moving piece of electronica, with a music video that helps bring its vision to life. It allows space for interpretation while expressing an embodied reality that washes over the listener through mood and sensation.
You’ll find my correspondence with BESS below where she tells us a bit more about ‘Gatekeeper’. This and her inspiration and creative process for the song and music video and more:
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‘Gatekeeper’: Inspiration and Process
1) Congratulations on the release of ‘Gatekeeper’! How does it feel now that the song and visual are out for the world to experience?
Thank you! It is a release, and I feel extremely proud, and I am overjoyed with the collaboration with the talented Sofia Due Rosenzweig, who shot, directed and edited, with Esben Sloth the video-work.
2) Could you tell us a bit about what inspired this piece?
Basically the piece is anchored in the song first and foremost and takes foundation in the project ‘Virginia Supreme’ at large. I then contacted Sofia Due, whom I knew of as a person and a film-director and felt I had a good chemistry with, and we developed the concept together, via conversation, exchange of inspiration sources and even in a spiritually guided exchange including tarot-decks.
3) Could you walk us through the process of making ‘Gatekeeper’?
Gatekeeper is a part of the song circle of 13 songs ‘Virginia Supreme’, and it came about in a process of investigating to write songs with the off-set of a, very near to my heart, philosophical and political theme, namely feminism or questions around gender. This song started out with the synth-theme, me being happy about a new digital one I acquired and testing out newly found techniques of ‘side-chaining’. A way of making the synth sound bounce and ‘pump’ like heard on the track. The text is probably the most directly emotionally anchored one on the album, allowing the pain and sense of hurt in connection to patriarchal dynamics getting expressed. I obviously also points to those dynamics in context of music industry, talking about gatekeeping, and the notion of way too few men on top of the food-chain controlling things and over-looking thousands of vital female and other minorities’ expressions and accounts of reality.
‘Gatekeeper’: Lyrics and Music Video
4) The song seems to ebb and swell through ideas, thoughts and emotions that feel both concrete and abstract. Why did it feel right to give an insight into this experience this way?
I actually don’t think of the lyrics in this song as too abstract! 😀 I guess there’s a degree of aphoristic dancing around the core message. Those choices probably being intuitively to enhance the emotional entrance into the universe for the song, rather than a more direct, polemic or intellectual way in.
5) The music video for the song feels driven by musicality, emotion and stillness. Is there anything specific that you would like to highlight about the visual?
To me, what shines through in the visuals, blissfully, is the fact that me and Sofia Due, decided from the start of the process to frame our working flow in a caring and gentle way, and I’m a hundred procent sure, that this can be seen and felt in the actual work, which is so great. The birds ‘featuring’ at the end, literally also felt like becoming a part of our collaboration, flying into the ‘scene’ at the most heightened level of immersion and concentration into filming, it felt transformative 🙂
Watch the music video for ‘Gatekeeper’ here:
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About BESS: Her Journey, Creative Process & Journey
6) Could you tell us a bit more about your journey as an artist in your own words?
Yes, I started out young with singing, primarily, then got into guitar and playing and writing my own songs. Later I was dancing quite a bit and even thought about pursuing modern dance as my main focus, but then after some years redirected and decided that music was what I mainly wanted to focus on. Later my curiosity and work through music and performance brought me towards visual arts, and I ended up studying my master’s degree in Contemporary Art at The Royal College of Art in London. I am always curious and on a search, and I am eager to create first and foremost, and through which material, scene, with who and where comes after I think. I mean I appreciate communicating with people and learn from exchange all the time, and I also wanna live as much as I wanna create art. To me it’s just the same thing.
7) Could you give us a glimpse into your creative process?
My creative process varies, lately it has revolved around a spiritual practice and getting more conscious about energy at large. Energy astrologically understood, energy between people, in societies and in the body(ies). I like to take in new inspiration often, when I can figure out transcending my own thoughts, watching films, seeing exhibitions and reading. I paint ‘somatic paintings’ that is sort of a completely intuitive outlet, and I don’t think of any context with these. I think a lot and I LOVE to conversate with friends. I have loved to think conceptually, with each music-project, being very distinct about the frame/ limits or themes of what I was working with. With the film though, I have created around this album, it became also a psychological deep-dive and transcending journey through a lot of film-material I had brought with me from some years back, and I used the process to reflect and ruminate over past life and experience, and creating the story I loved, sending me, and the people around me forward.
8) Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions! Is there anything that you would like to share? Especially for artists like yourself.
You’re welcome! Think with your heart and use your brain to take care of yourself.
Follow BESS on Instagram!
Listen to ‘Gatekeeper’ here:
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