You’ve recently released your debut EP, but from how you describe your collaboration, Mutually Feeling seems to be so much more - experiential performances, seductive visual material, sonic poetics, and handmade garments… What is the aim of this project and how did it begin?
Mutually Feeling ultimately serves as a creative playground for us and to be completely honest, it began by accident. In early 2017 we moved from Montreal to Melbourne. Connor had the opportunity to be part of a compilation record [Unknown Data Set] with Melbourne/Berlin based label Potatoheadz. As an experiment, we decided to workshop some poetry/vocals over an instrumental composition. It was different than anything Connor had previously released, but the label really seemed to vibe what we were doing and ended up putting the track [Distilled Existence] on the record. We expected it to be a one-time thing. We didn’t even have an artist name let alone plans to make a record! It was just a pleasurable way for us to collaborate as a couple and bridge our artistic pursuits.
Through the Potatoheadz release we connected with Brisbane-based label, Esoteric Exports, and they were the ones who really motivated us to turn our one-off track into a project. With the goal of producing a record together and the label to back us, we went all in. We holed up in Berlin for two months and delved into the nitty gritty of production. It was really during that time that we conceived of, created and birthed “Intertwined” into the universe. It was a beautiful and organic thing.
We have both always maintained art practices as individuals. Ariana is consumed by photography, filmmaking and fashion. She’s also been writing poetry and prose since her teens but until beginning Mutually Feeling, had left music and performance largely in her past. Connor has been producing music for almost a decade and also holds a special place for the visual arts and fashion. It’s safe to say it was only a matter of time until our artistic lives melted into one another. The videos, the photos, the digital presence, the performances and the merch/garments we create are just as integral to the project as the music. We aspire to nurture a broader artistic vision and utilize all sides of our creativity in a form of uninhibited production, rather than feel the conventional limitations of labeling ourselves a music project.
This project is a collaboration between two people - how do you engage creatively with each other?
All that we do, we do together. We have been in love for six years and our art production is merely an extension of our everyday lives. We are in a state of eternal creation. Seeds of ideas come from synth melodies Connor explores or bits of poetry Ariana writes, the dreams we have. We are always photographing each other, fantasizing together and realizing together. The essence of our collaboration is mutual respect and adoration. We both go through phases of creative slump but so far have been lucky to compensate for each other’s low points. We energize and nurture each other through the rough patches. We are blessed to make music and art as best friends and lovers.
Your music is dreamy, tender, sensual… What are your musical influences and how would you describe your individual styles?
We have wildly different taste in music but there is this sweet spot where our taste intersects. Connor loves gritty techno with a post punk influence and Ariana loves ethereal, wavy synth music with spaced out vocals. The stark contrast in what we love is what we both bring to the table. Connor will write something darker, more hedonistic, and Ariana will drip honey vocals all over it. It’s a gentle balance.
What is your visual aesthetic?
Our visual aesthetic is anchored in a shared fascination with analog, the point where glamour meets grunge, the shallow points in the water where you can just make out the world beneath. Again, there are different things that attract us: Connor lives for 90s era Xerox art, collage and zines, Ariana loves photography that is soft and sensual with juxtaposed hardness in themes or use of light. In an increasingly digital world, there is something wonderfully real about cradling a tape, a record, a roll of film. We crave the physicality, we hold affection for our objects.
How would you describe an experiential performance or event by Mutually Feeling?
Our performances are high energy, romantic, sexy. Every song melts into the next like a DJ set so that we can keep people moving their bodies from start to finish. Ariana loves to flirt with the crowd, broaching freestyle dialogue between songs that range from topics such as consent or world happenings, through to windows into our personal lives. Creating a performance space using luxurious draping fabrics, flowers, video installations, candles helps us to create a level of intimacy between us and the audience, like we’re all incubated in a bedroom. We aim to envelope everyone around us.
We have been hosting queer raves since 2014 but are hoping to branch out into hosting other types of art, film and performance events. Only time will tell how Mutually Feeling will evolve.
You’ve mentioned that this debut record was several years in the making, written in a period of transition and in different places around the world. What sorts of experiences shaped the development of your music?
We wrote “Intertwined” while experiencing huge personal shifts. We were fresh university graduates, running away from reality across continents, navigating this vast open space with no clear trajectory. We were watching friends and acquaintances go on to do things we wished we were doing and we felt confused and overwhelmed with the intensity/uncertainty of life. There was this looming sense of digital anxiety that manifested in our lives and we wanted to speak to that through the poetry featured on the record. The culture of social media, broadcasting achievements in order to make them feel real, the way we redesign the self, the way we experience envy, were all penetrating our reality in a big way. The record really nursed us through a transformative time and pays homage to it.
What brings you back to Montreal?
Montreal is our most beloved iteration of home. That, and visas are a pain in the f*cking ass.
The music video for the track “Dried Roses” features the iconic cake-sitting webcam model, Lindsay Dye. How did that collaboration come about?
This summer Ariana had the opportunity to shoot a story and write an essay for the magazine Plasma Dolphin [Modern Madonnas: Repurposing Sexuality in the Age of Cyber Satisfaction]. She connected with Lindsay through Instagram and the rest is history. We are so grateful to Lindsay for trusting us to use the footage we shot for our music video. She is such a badass, contemporary, empowered woman who owns it and was the perfect person to feature for this particular track. We are consistently blown away by the magnificent performers we collaborate with.
What is coming up for Mutually Feeling now that Intertwined has been released?
Hometown record release party, Europe tour, a line of custom shirts, a short film and a second record in the works. We’re exhausted and excited. 2019 is doing us right.
Photography: Laurence Philomène
