Singer Paris Paloma questions the myth of femininity

If there’s a way to emulate the sounds of dripping wax, freshly blown out candles, and the discomfort of being stared at by a table full of men with music, Paris Paloma has done it.

The 24-year-old singer-songwriter’s gothic music is sometimes a refresh of Greek mythology, religion and art. She skillfully crafts stories that combine her own experiences with impeccable references that leave audiences feeling like they’ve learned something not only about her and themselves, but also about the world we live in.

“For me, this has always been a way to tell very biographical stories and still have a certain distance and security,” said Paloma in a Zoom interview from her London home.

Her breakthrough song, “Labour,” sounds like it’s dripping from Persephone’s pomegranate lips, pouring righteous, red rage on the undervalued people who came after her. It’s a reckoning with oppressed people, a way to put into words the feeling of being exploited to the limit and then cast aside.

In the folk ballad, Paloma sings: “All day, every day therapist, mother, maid/ First nymph, then virgin, nurse, then servant/ Just a hanger, living to serve/ So he don’t lift a finger/ Round the clock, baby machine/ So he can live out his picket fence dreams/ It’s no proof of love if you make her do it/ You make me do too much work.”

The song went viral on TikTok, with users sharing their experiences with sexism as the lyrics blared in the background. “Nobody can prepare you for that visibility in such a short amount of time,” Paloma says. “It just got picked up by women, by the trans community, by the queer community, by anyone who resonated with it. It became something so much bigger than me, and I was so grateful for that. But I also really didn’t feel able to thank everyone at the time.”

To show her appreciation and give a voice to those who connect with her music, Paloma created a new version of the song in March 2024 (one year after the original was released), featuring background vocals, art, and videos from fans.

Adam and Eve references can also be found in Paloma’s work. In “The Fruits” she focuses on the difficulties women face in living their sexuality in patriarchy, when their gender is what so often puts women at risk.

“‘Devil’ you call me, but it seems I’m enjoying the fruits of my labor that came to me too young when he stole my virtue. I’m glad it seems to serve you that I was born a daughter and not a son,” she sings in the track.

Paloma’s new album “Cacophony”, which will be released on August 30th, continues her myth.

The album’s opening song, “My Mind (Now)”, and the name of the album itself were directly inspired by the Greek mythological creation story, particularly as described by Stephen Fry in his book Mythos.

“It’s about the idea that in Greek mythology, life didn’t begin with a big bang, but with chaos. And out of that chaos – that great cosmic yawn of a cacophony of sounds – in the darkness, creation arose,” she says. “That felt like my creative process, because songwriting comes from the chaos in my head. That informed both the song and the title of the album, because all of these songs are born out of that creation myth.

“It’s so chaotic that something creative has to come out of it to deal with it.”

June 23rd at 8pm at Atlantis, 2047 Ninth St. NW. theatlantis.com. Sold out.