Philadelphia bedroompop musician Portia Maidment, aka Port Lucian premieres her single “Full Control?” today on Fadeawayradiate. When Lucia sent me the song she said she felt it “had legs”, and she was right: it blew my mind! It is exactly the kind of song I am always after: dreamy yet slightly uncanny; beauty that is a tad discomforting at the same time. Something that soothes, but also challenges the ears. “Full Control?” is like an aural Picasso painting: a strange medley of manipulated sounds that seem disconnected and yet come together to form a perfectly coherent melody in the end. It is the embodiment of the bedroompop movement that celebrates lo-key copy/paste/collage DIY creativity, and flaunts that imperfection, instead of hiding it. Portia: “Everything in the track is actually a digital instrument or a sample I downloaded for free from the internet. For example, the drums are all individual hits which I spliced together. For the glitchy sound I automated pitch slides in my DAW.” The result is exceptional!
Portia has been making music as Port Lucian for the past 3 years, but started out playing classical music at a young age (violin and piano) and subsequently taught herself guitar, bass, drums and mixing when she hit her punk phase as a tween. In 2017 she started her solo project, releasing an EP called “Sun“, housing some self-recorded psychedelic songs, but Portia is “loving the new bedroom-pop angle” right now, and plans on releasing multiple singles that might end up in an EP.
Portia: “ I used to play a lot of shows in Philly when I was in high school, and a few in Cleveland when I moved there for college. I’ve played with Lala Lala, Sen Morimoto, Del Sur, and Nation of Language to name a few, but at the moment I haven’t performed in over a year and I’m more than happy to just make music in my bedroom. I had a brief stint making a song with a producer in Cleveland last year but I scrapped it and it honestly showed me that it’s better to just make fun music for myself than try to pursue the “traditional” path for bands. I’m working on a number of singles which I am planning to release this summer and I’m excited to get them out there!” For lovers of: My Bloody Valentine, Orchid Mantis, Maddie Jay
