Searching For Her Roots, Cristina Vane Explores Identity & Growth in “Nowhere Sounds Lovely”
“YOU GET A PIECE OF ME WHENEVER YOU LISTEN TO THAT RECORD” — says musician Cristina Vane, while discussing her latest album, Nowhere Sounds Lovely, released back on April 2. The truth of the situation is, on every song spread throughout the album, Vane left a little piece of herself for you to decipher amongst the lyrics. The album is a textural roadmap and travelogue of ups and downs, heartbreak and redemption, and the exploration of identity. At times, it leaves you feeling nostalgic for places you have never been. At others, it makes you hopeful that you can be the person that you're meant to be.
For Cristina Vane, the idea of exploring your own identity is a critical one. Born in Italy to a Sicilian-American father and a Guatemalan mother, Vane’s childhood was split between England, France, and Italy. By the time she was 18, she was fluent in four languages, before moving to the United State to attend university at Princeton. She soon found herself working in Los Angeles at a vintage folk guitar shop, but still felt a disconnect from her father’s cultural identity. And despite taking a five-month road trip across the country, she soon discovered that it is much more about the journey you go through in your life than the actual destination and space in which you live. Every mark on the road and turn of the page is another piece of the puzzle that makes you who you are — there's just always something to discover.
At its core, Nowhere Sounds Lovely is an homage to American musical landscape in which Vane was introduced to over the course of a five-month long road trip across the United States. Her song, “Dreaming Of Utah” is written with a folky waltz melody that emulates the gentle beauty of an Emmylou Harris song, while “Heaven Bound Station” introduces fingerpicking reminiscent of delta blues music that heavily inspires her. With influences such as pre-war American blues from the likes of Skip James, Robert Johnson, and Blind Willie Johnson, to Appauchian hill music and blue rock, it is clear that this is an American album. However, if you dive a little deeper into the lyrics and tones of each song, you’ll see how much more there is to the album. It is made clear (as from what Vane explains) that, “When it came to the album, I wanted it to be a reflection of who I am, not just of the old music that I’ve come to love.”
That is what makes this record such an interesting one: besides creating a vast textural landscape structured from the music that inspires her, Vane sets out to put every aspect of her soul into the songs of this record. Much like the roadmap that makes up most of the record, you will find a dissection of Vane’s hopes and fears, emotional resilience, and personal growth. “That time for me was such an intense period of growth,” Vane says. “And not to say that there aren’t other ways in which you can grow, but the road and traveling taught me so much about a ton of different things. For example, you need to question, like, ‘How do you navigate being alone? How do I safely camp alone? How do I be in nature alone?’ — you know? It was just generally a lot trying to figure out where I belong, both in the music world and in that scene, but also in the different parts of the country in relation to my heritage.”
Beginning to dissect some of the tracks on the record, “Dreaming of Utah” brings the emotional vulnerability of Vane’s songwriting front and center. Written at the wake of her tour — just shortly after moving to Nashville — it brings to center stage the idea of finding and exploring self-love — even if it means being a little tough on yourself. Vane sings, “A little tough love feels as new as a birth,” and explains that, “[it’s] one of those songs that the inspiration or the feeling was so strong. But it completely marks a point of me still trying to love myself — even though the journey and road is still a long one. I was pushing myself so hard to do things though, but the reward and pay off was so strong. I felt so proud of myself. It gave me so much confidence … so this song and those feelings really set out to answer those questions in which I was initially asking.”
Two other standout tracks that appear on the record are “Heaven Bound Station” and “Prayers For The Blind,” both of which contain a spiritual and questioning underlying theme throughout. “Heaven Bound Station” is a delta-blue-inspired track in which Vane questions her faith and spirituality, while in comparison, “Prayer For The Blind” questions the relationships between mother and daughter. The song was inspired by a conversation Vane had with a Nebraska couple, in which the wife explained that her mother, who was suffering from dementia, was convinced her husband was cheating on her with a woman with two wooden legs.
To me, Vane’s sincerity and honest approach in her songwriting takes centerfold within the song “Wishing Bone Blues.” Written while in Venice Beach, California, the song takes a darker shift within the record. Juxtaposing the sunny facade of the environment of Venice Beach, Cristina Vane paints a picture of the rather truthful narrative of the trauma that many people have faced there. But the song also points out that the answer to fixing your problems is not simply getting away from them, but learning how to accept them and continue to grow from past mistakes. “This song is very much about the idea of how I felt when I first left for the road,” she explains. “What I learned was that I did feel the immediate highs being far away from my sadness, especially from all the motivation of meeting people and being reaffirmed in my music. But in terms of my personal problems, I was just far away from them. But they didn't go away. And I don't know, I still have to do the work.”
That is the thing that is so beautiful about this record — it is so honest and true to the character of who Cristina Vane is. On the surface, it seems so perfected in a way that draws you in and leaves you wondering what is more to come. But if you dig a little deeper and spend time away from the surface of it all, you realize how much growth and sense of humanness there is within it. The record is a collection and map of eclectic diary entries that speaks of hope, courage, spiritual growth, and wonder. And while that road to “nowhere” may seem daunting or scary at times, it sure is a lovely one.
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