Q&A: Laura Pieri's "Frankie" EP is a Powerful Ode to Female Resilience
IN THE HEART OF ARTISTIC REBIRTH AND TRANSFORMATION — multidisciplinary musician and visual artist Laura Pieri has released her debut EP Frankie that undergoes cycles of rage, acceptance and reconciliation. The four-track EP came to fruition when Pieri was at the point of almost giving up on her career. Inspired by what her farewell to the industry should sound like, the story of Frankie, a woman reclaiming her power, was born. Frankie represents a woman navigating male-dominated environments. She is a foil story for women in predatory industries.
Inspired by timeless tales such as Frankenstein, Suspiria and the myth of Persephone, Pieri weaves a complex tapestry. Frankenstein's creation, Suspiria's dark mysticism, and Persephone's journey between worlds all reflect the multifaceted nature of Frankie's experience. She is a character who must adapt and camouflage herself in response to her surroundings, symbolizing the numerous roles women often feel compelled to play. This sensation of entrapment and the consequent need for constant reinvention are central themes of Frankie.
The EP guides listeners through a vivid emotional landscape. Beginning with disillusionment, moving through anger, and ultimately arriving at acceptance, each song is a chapter in Frankie’s story. Pieri's poignant lyrics and emotive melodies ensure that each stage of Frankie's journey is felt deeply by the listener.
“The EP was born out of a transitional phase for me,” Pieri says. “I was mourning what I believed was me needing to give up on my career. I had felt that walking away was a necessity, and instead set my goals into pivoting into academia with corporate America as the end goal. However, leaving one male dominated field for another and feeling similar feelings come up made me see I was trying to run away from ghosts. Instead of running, I sat with them, and from that the story of Frankie, a woman reclaiming her voice and power, was born.”
“Sea of Tragedy” dives listeners into the raw disillusionment that marks the beginning of Frankie's odyssey. It’s a stark reflection of Pieri’s own near-abandonment of her career, setting a haunting tone for the narrative to come. As the EP progresses, we encounter the fierce, pulsating anger that drives Frankie to reclaim her power. This is where Pieri’s artistry shines, capturing the intensity of emotions that come with fighting back against oppression and reclaiming one's narrative.
By “Come Clean,” we find Frankie in a place of introspection, grappling with the good and bad aspects of her journey. Pieri's nuanced approach in this song mirrors the complexities of self-discovery and the bittersweet nature of realizing one’s strength. Finally, the EP closes with “GODDESS ENERGY,” a track that offers a sense of closure and empowerment. It's not a simple happy ending, but rather a realistic acknowledgment of the scars borne and the strength gained.
Frankie is not just a story of a woman reclaiming her power; it is Laura Pieri’s triumphant declaration that she has rediscovered her own.
LUNA: Thank you for sitting down and talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what inspires your artistic style and creative persona?
LAURA: I have many different muses at different times. I think that right now it's impossible for me to not say I'm very inspired by the works of David Bowie and Prince. I think that their versatility and their presence and even just their androgyny is something that I'm really fascinated and drawn to. I've been really living in that Miley Cyrus early, Can't Be Tamed era. Something about that has been really speaking to me at this moment in time with the [Frankie] project, and I've been really feeling it. I listen to it when I'm rehearsing.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?
LAURA: I think that every project really depends. At the end of the day, music is about connection and about speaking to somebody else, wherever they are in their journey. I think that with Frankie, I wanted to provoke a little farther. I did want to get people to think a little deeper and at least seek things out for themselves in a different way. I think in general it is just to feel more connected, to feel less alone and to be seen.
LUNA: You just released your newest EP Frankie and a huge congratulations is in order. The EP follows a really transitional time in your life, especially with your music career. What is the inspiration behind Frankie and who is Frankie?
LAURA: I think that Frankie is two-fold. Inspiration-wise, I think that this is the character that I sought to tell the story because in the beginning I was very much like, ‘No, this is a character. It's got nothing to do with me. It's her story. These four tracks are her journey. This has absolutely nothing to do with me.’ The longer I worked on this project, the more I realized it has everything to do with me. This is very much a meditation, reflection, and the digestion of what I was going through, and the feelings that I was dealing with. I wrote this project as I was torn between feeling like I had to give up my entire career and pivot into something else. But at the same time, I was not willing to do that. I poured so much passion into this. I think that it's a very unique experience to be a woman in a world that wasn't built for women who tend to navigate that space. This project had come about and I was just so tired of being told that I had to just be grateful for the opportunities. For instance, I just started my MBA program I was applying to. I was very aware that there were women there, but that this was a male-dominated space. The way that women were spoken about the standards that there are for us, it's a very different kind of life and we have to be more careful with what we say, how we proceed, how we dress, how we walk and how we talk. I feel like it's easy to not see that when it's not you, but it's impossible to not constantly be aware of it when it's you.
LUNA: Frankie was co-written with an all female team and you collaborated with Skyler Cocco on the production. Can you share more about your creative partnership and how it influenced the overall sound and direction of the EP?
LAURA: I knew I wanted an all female team because can you imagine, I'm walking in to write a story about what it's like being a woman and I'm going to walk in and it's going to be a team of male writers. There's a difference between how men write women and how women write. I knew I wanted a space where I could talk about my experience that wasn't positive and not feel like it was a display. I can feel comfortable being vulnerable. It's not something that I think I could do if it was a male space, or if there were men in the room with me. It was affirming to work with Skyler and having the amazing opportunity to engage with other women and nonbinary people over their experiences helped shape Frankie’s story,
LUNA: When I listened to Frankie in depth to its entirety, I really visualized and felt the energy that the project was brought to life by an all female team. Men couldn’t tell that story because women bring a lot of energy and empathy to their work.
LAURA: I wanted a room where I could be vulnerable, sincere and know that I was going to be heard. I absolutely had that. We were writing “GODDESS ENERGY,” and I think everyone has this insecurity with our bodies that we didn't have walking into this industry and I left with when I moved to New York. I just started embracing my hair and my body over the last two years, and that's how we came up with the second verse which was, “I’m falling in love with my natural curls / Loving every crevice and every curve.” I like that it's loving. Loving is an action that requires practice. It's not easy to say, ‘I'm going love myself.’ That's a difficult thing, especially when we can look outside and look through the internet and there's hundreds of other things telling us what we shouldn't be doing and what we should look like. There's so much that gets pumped to us and gets sold to us all the time that I find that we have very little time to just exist in our bodies, to exist in our energies, to connect with each other empathetically, to look at somebody and say, ‘Hey, I recognize you in your journey. It's similar to mine. Let's hold hands on this.’ I really wanted to do that with this project. Even though it goes through rage, it ends in reconciliation, acceptance and love.
LUNA: What is your favorite song from Frankie and why do you love it? Is there a certain lyric or message that stands out to you the most?
LAURA: My favorite song is “Sea of Tragedy.” It started to pour from me in a way that I couldn’t just stop it. This is what it feels like and I'm drowning all the time in my feelings. Production-wise, I think that is the closest to what I've done and the closest to my own personal style. There's a lot of 80s, big production in there which I love. It’s my favorite song to listen to, it was my favorite one to record and also my favorite to perform. My favorite lyric is in “Come Clean” and it goes, “For the dust to settle / I'll feel the devil inside of me.” I love that it doesn't quite make a whole lot of sense. I don't think it's meant to. I do think that there's a duality. I think that women are incredibly resilient and are incredibly strong. I don't know if we would have ever been this way had we not gone through what we've gone through in generations. Have we not been burned at the stake? I don't know if we would have become what we are today. I'm not proud of everything that I've done. I think that an important part of learning to love yourself is to forgive those parts of yourself that you can't change and that you're not proud of and that you want to grow, because that's the part that I think needs the most amount of love.
LUNA: Did you have any lessons or breakthroughs while bringing Frankie to fruition?
LAURA: This was my first concept project ever and it was my first start to finish project that I was producing all on my own that was this big. These four tracks have dominated my life for the last two years. I have a terrible habit of being ambitious and wanting to do things but not seeing them through. I think that it’s easy to have a good idea, but to execute it is really difficult. This was the first project that I had in my hand in everything we did, from the story, figuring out what can be done, what couldn't be done and what has to be sacrificed. I did the styling for the videos and the hair and makeup for the videos. We use my own photos for the covers and I really had to get creative with everything that was done and be the creative director of this entire project. It was very much a trial by fire for me, but I'm very grateful for this experience. There's definitely things that I'll be doing differently but I'm sure that by the next project, I'll have different muscles I need and I'll learn new lessons and I think that's the point of it all.
LUNA: How do your personal aesthetics and experiences play a role in the visual storytelling and the overall story of Frankie?
LAURA: The mythology of Persephone is one that I've always been drawn to. I've always been very fascinated by how we have very little evidence of her tale and the original manuscripts. The original manuscript suggests that the thing about the seeds is an allegory. It's not really seeds. There's so much of it that's lost to time then was left up to the interpretation of most people who read it. I am a Gemini, so I relate to the idea of being spring and flowers, but also goddess of the underworld and sitting at a strange, deadly throne. That's one level of obsession that has really influenced this. I think that and the history of women and witches is something that's very important to me and the idea that we rarely hear men being like, ‘he’s such a warlock,’ but you can do that with women. All of that mythology was really packed in when I was writing Frankie.
LUNA: What are you most excited for listeners to experience when they hear Frankie in its entirety?
LAURA: I'm excited for them to go on this journey. I really hope that people who get a chance to connect this record, they start at the top and they run through the tracks without shuffling and go through it in order. I think “Daughter of Demeter” is one entire world away from “GODDESS ENERGY.”
LUNA: Frankie follows a journey of you not only rediscovering your voice, but also navigating advocating for yourself and your career. What advice do you have for listeners who are undergoing a similar experience as you?
LAURA: I think that's difficult because I'm really cognizant of power dynamics and sometimes advocating for yourself can cost someone their job or get them blacklisted. If you can have a good support system, because it is your sisters, your friends, and your girlfriends that at the end of the day will be there for you if things aren't going right. They'll help you advocate for yourself. I cannot emphasize enough the value of female friendships, the value of having someone in your corner who purely just wants you to do well, to have someone you can trust that you can be around. I think as women, we are more likely to be pushed to the boundaries of what we're comfortable or not, and having people you can trust to talk to you, has been by far the most healing. I have a little bit more ammunition. Now when I walk in the room and I have my armor, I'm not standing alone.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
LAURA: I'm really excited. This is a rebirth for me in so many ways. I decided to do this while going to school. I'm going back to school in the fall. I definitely want to do a Halloween performance in October because I do the 31 Days of Halloween. I dress up everyday in October, and it’s a little tradition that I have. It's my favorite month. I was just not born in it because it wouldn't be fair to everybody else. Halloween is definitely something I'll be celebrating very intently and I'll be continuing to tell Frankie's story for a while so she's going to be with me for a little bit more.
