Musical Inspirations: Arabella Proffer tells Vainzine what's been going on and the music that kept her sane.

Over the fall I had a solo art exhibition I was gearing up for, and like an idiot I wanted to complete way too many pieces for it. While I did complete over 30 painted portraits, I left the last 4 portraits to do in a big crunch. Here are the two albums that basically got me through it; or at least kept me awake, and put me in an altered state enough to not get distracted.

The first and only song I had ever really heard from Billy Nichols was “London Social Degree”, it was a mainstay at all the 60s themed and Mod nights that went on in my time in Los Angeles, plus a few venues in Cleveland. Most people know his song “Would You Believe” as his only 60s hit, as it also has some contribution from Steve Marriott of The Small Faces. It turns out Billy was discovered and signed by Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to his Immediate label, all in a roundabout way through George Harrison. Billy was only 16 years old, and made a staff writer for other acts. The short of it, the kid was given all the instruments he wanted, studio time, and got some pretty boss contributors while recording “Would You Believe”. Billed as the UK version of “Pet Sounds” it runs the gamut of psych, fuzz, mod, pop and gets a little weird with the orchestration and melodies. But no matter how weird it gets, it is in a trippy pleasant way to say the least. I find it hard to think a 16-18 year old wrote lyrics as seasoned and knowing as his, but considering he was writing for other “adults” maybe it isn’t. This album never saw the light of day oddly, only a dozen or so copies were pressed, and the re-issue came out 30 years later and is always billed as a lost classic. Indeed.

Seven Percent Solution was a psych rock outfit from Austin that had their heyday in the 90s, I honestly never heard of them until 2004. I don’t know how, and I kick myself all the time, but even though they made appearances on MTV and such, I just had no clue. Maybe the “shoegaze revival” wasn’t in full swing enough as it is now. Though I wouldn’t describe Seven Percent Solution as shoegaze per se other than using delays with buried vocals. It happened one day going through my husband’s Cd's and there was a little cardboard promo and folded up funny - he said it was given out as a freebie at their shows - so I got curious. It’s great for painting, great for writing, great for driving, and all that stuff. Though they are indeed full songs in structure, it comes off more as a soundtrack or layered texture. It is hypnotic, and the title “All About Satellites and Spaceships” hits the nail on the head. So maybe it is a little shoegaze, but psychedelic and ambient more so. I can listen to it on loop a good three times or more some days. I emailed one of the members not long ago saying this was fun to paint to, and he was happy saying, “That’s how we imagined it, always wanted someone to paint to it”.

Arabella Proffer

To see more of Arabella's work or to learn more about her visit her website

Previous Musical Inspirations articles can be viewed by clicking the links below:

Musical Inspirations 1

Musical Inspirations 2

Musical Inspirations 3

Musical Inspirations 4

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