"Forest Behind the Fog", track by track by Lady Sloth
Photo credit: Stephanie Girard
Forest Behind the Fog is a lyric in the fourth song of the EP, Freedom Bailey. To us, the forest resembles the clarity and freedom of self actualization. The fog stands for all the obstacles in the way… the depression, anxiety, fear, and doubt. In our EP, we acknowledge and explore those obstacles on our way to the peaceful forest.
We wrote Sugarloaf Mountain Road in a hotel on vacation in Laguna Beach, CA. As we were both spirited rebel kids who lied a lot to avoid punishment, we wanted to capture the essence of this tender time in a song. We’ve both put in a lot of work to live unapologetically as adults, but every now and again we get whispers of our adolescent angst and deceit. Almost like a coming out, we love that we’re able to celebrate those times in a jam we can really rock out to. SMR is a story of many (but certainly not all) childhood lies and secrets we hid in order to be accepted and appear “well behaved.”
Fences is the third song we wrote. We knew it was time to write a song about setting boundaries with our energy and our time; something we both have struggled with and continue to try to improve upon. Our process was basically a word vomit of all the times we tacitly allowed our boundaries to be crossed. A ‘fun’ trip down memory lane - as the lyric begins to describe the time I (Justina) barely agreed to be in an open relationship with my then boyfriend, who slept with our mutual friend in our shared bed. The chorus straddles the line of desperation and self empowerment. “I hope you don’t find it offensive, I’m over here building my fences,” as we learn to navigate our own limits and risk disappointing others to avoid disappointing ourselves.
The last song we wrote together was Head Game. Jon was reluctant to write another original song; he felt he was out of ideas and couldn’t match how good the first three songs turned out. I (Justina) brought the first verse of Head Game to the table, insisting that Jon finish it with me. This is where puppy dog eyes come in handy. He relented and began writing, then the rest is history. Head Game was born and ended up being one of our favorite songs on the EP. Between the two of us, we’ve both struggled with crippling anxiety and depression. Head Game addresses these issues with the chorus being comprised of the lyric, “If I pass out, my body takes over,” - an anxiety mantra that Jon’s friend David Oberlin taught him to help keep his anxiety in check if he feels short of breath amidst an anxiety episode.
We wrote Freedom Bailey in Cambria, CA on vacation in October 2021. Inspired by the scenery and wine, we decided to write our first song together. Jon began writing the lyrics, then passed them off to me (Justina), who changed and added lyrics. The lyrics are important to us because we’ve always rejected the notion that we should follow a societal “norm” or that there’s one true path to success. We are so often influenced by the opinions and scrutiny of others - it can be debilitating. FB is a call to “come home again,” remembering that our freedom lies within us. We believe in creating our own path to success approaching things our own way, trusting our own instincts always.