PREMIERE | Rebecca Sykes, "Dysmorphia"
Through the reflection altering points of view with Rebbeca Sykes; photographed by Michael Ward.
As if we don’t have enough to deal with in the world, it is all too easy to stand in our own ways of progress. This manifests in being our own worst critics, engaging in self-deprecation, self-defeating internal monologues that at worst can metastasize into self-hatred. These downward trends impact the way we see ourselves and others, just as envy, and being aggrieved can make an individual think the worst of someone. Intensified thought spirals distort the whole picture, seeing ourselves for something we are not (from the personal, mental, intellectual, spiritual, physical, and so on). Even when trying to see the best in others and the world, we can be our own worst enemy. Obsessive views can easily border on unrealistic assessments of ourselves, engaging in the toxic comparative games in which we ratio our own self worth and attributes that are gauged in arbitrary metrics brought on by the muddle of our own reckless reckonings.
Entering into this consortium of the self versus the self is San Diego artist Rebecca Sykes, and the debut of the dizzying and heartbreaking “Dysmorphia”. From the debut EP Face to Face, Rebecca invites the listener to listen intently, and sink into the subconscious of turbulent thoughts that toss and turn beneath the surface of saudade, tear stricken sentiments. To be release in November on Dusty Mars Records — the label ran by Cara Potiker from moondaddy, and the Comet Theater recording studio — Sykes traces the mania trails of the mind to the vulnerable places that can be painful that lay low past the protective outposts of human pride and ego.
"Dysmorphia" swan dives into the blurred visions of self-esteem and the sadness that transforms the view of the self. Rebecca expresses the passages of pained thought that conjures the sight of self-perception as being something that is alien to the mind's eye. The wrenching lyrics witness the abandon into body dysmorphia, where the individual in the mirror is picked apart from the vantage point angle of internalized prejudice. Sykes expresses the emotive energies of what happens when the human penchant toward antagonism is pointed back against the person feeling that ferocity, illustrating the steps into which cynical cycles lose all focus on a sensible form of reality. "Dysmorphia" gently rocks with chords that see-saw like a forlorn lullaby that dreams of something beyond, whilst belittling the self for everything that they feel they are not, they can not be, everything they wish to be, and the skewed views that morph the visage of the individual seen glancing back from within the mirror.
The visuals directed by Leo Lozano, co-directed and produced by MNRL Media actualize the intensive introspective aspects of the song in a b/w art house style short film. Southwest spans of desert vision quests are coupled with dark minimally lit footage of the artist strolling around their home. The video further articulates Sykes’ self-scathing streams of thought into distorted fishbowl lenses, utilizing various gradients of light to convey the diversions of perceptions that blur out truths from meditative visions. Evoking a mixture of film noir and new Hollywood experimentalism, Lozano allows the physical setting to feel representative of Rebecca’s headspace where the candid confines of home and nature become the inner worlds of restless thoughts that runaway with reflections that rush past the stations of reason.
[FLASHING LIGHTS / STROBE LIGHT WARNING]
The Halloween appropriate visuals show the eerie and unsettling familiar places of negative thought. The classic horror style cinema plagues the human mind that increasingly becomes more comfortable with self-demeaning spiraling, rather than a constructive kindness and care that is established by the strong foundations of self-love. “Dysmorphia” can be seen, as well as heard and felt in a blending of the inside and outside externalities of the distorted views that are all too easily propagated by an overactive imagination in the unbridled throes of ruthless self-examinations.
Rebecca Sykes shared the following meditations on “Dysmorphia”:
This song is deeply personal and touches on something that many humans experience throughout their lives. The lyrics are quite detailed and heavy, touching on body image and the way I perceive myself. I am hoping this song provides an opportunity for introspection.
Moving through the hall of mirrors in the depths of mindfulness with Rebecca Sykes; photographed by Michael Ward.
This song shows you exactly how I have perceived myself and my body and how I have struggled to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Face to Face is about looking at myself physically and mentally — and feeling everything.
Rebecca Sykes' debut Face to Face EP arrives November 21 via San Diego’s Dusty Mars Records.