Montreal’s Braids will release a new album next year, and, while details haven’t fully been revealed, a video for a new song is out today. Check out the visual for “Eclipse (Ashley)” below. The song was inspired by a friend of the band and the group’s trip to view the total solar eclipse. Braids’ next record is out in 2020 via Secret City.
“Amongst the chatter Ashley [Obscura] said ‘we should take this opportunity to think about what eclipses us in our lives.’ BAM. REFOCUS,” Raphaelle Standell-Preston said in a statement. “We all took this sentiment with us as we sat on the side of the quarry, as the moon came to hug the sun. We sat in silence perched amongst the tall grass, the wildflowers, the rocks and glistening water, closed eyes, reflecting. Returning to the studio, the song poured out of us in one shot."
Earlier this year, the band shared statements about their reconciliation with keyboardist Katie Lee, who left the band in 2012. Last year, Lee called out Standell-Preston for “performative allyship” in response to a Pitchfork op-ed that Standell-Preston wrote about a sexist strain of the guitar gear community.
Lee also wrote at the time, “[Braids] have publicly defamed me, they have stripped me of fair ownership over certain songs, and they have gaslighted me.” She continued, “I am especially angry considering I was often silenced when I was in the band for speaking up about cultural and social issues that were important to me because ‘we aren’t a political band.’”
In a subsequent interview with Melody Lau for the CBC, Katie Lee said that Standell-Preston “hasn’t really done any work regarding her own racism.”
Raphaelle Standell-Preston apologized to Katie Lee on Twitter in 2018, writing, “Our break up was messy, apologies were not given on my part. I respect her views & am very willing to understand how to better support her & minorities moving forward. I am deeply sorry.”
Lee then said, “After much thought, I have decided that I would consider speaking with each of [the members of Braids] individually, but only after you all have taken an anti-oppression workshop designed specifically around racism within a working and arts context.”
In her recently released statement, Standell-Preston said:
Bassist/multi-instrumentalist Taylor Smith said, “After many months of self-confrontation, of learning, of reflection, of dialogue, I’m thankful to have had the opportunity to apologize for my actions face-to-face, to share moments of kindness and compassion in the room together, to each have a moment to feel heard, to share how this process has impacted each of us—both in its challenges and dark moments, but also the growth and new perspective it has inspired.”
Drummer Austin Tufts said, “It’s rare to have moments of deep personal reckoning. But as I attended these training courses on anti-racism and anti-oppression, it truly changed how I understand my own place in the world, how I want to live my life going forward, and the nuances of my past relationship with Katie.”
When reached by Pitchfork, Katie Lee shared the following statement:
Find Braids’ statements here.
