Bay Area sextet The Seshen returns with “Dive”, the first single from the band’s third LP, CYAN – out February 28 on Tru Thoughts. Taking its name from a color that is both strong and soft, CYAN unravels the progression that has been made since 2016’s Flames and Figures, both as a band and as individuals.
“Since Flames and Figures, a lot has been taking place both internally and externally,” lyricist and vocalist Lalin St. Juste recollects. We were on tour for the last album during the 2016 US election. There was an intense heaviness, a familiar one, one that extends generations and it just sunk in even further.”
Lead single “Dive” sees Lalin’s newfound freedom take flight as bassist/producer Akiyoshi Ehara merges aggressive and danceable rhythms with a hefty dose of distortion to create a backdrop that feels gritty and utterly unstoppable. “The path towards my power, my strength, being okay with being unapologetic is just starting. I’m reclaiming what I have lost and what has been passed down to me,” Lalin concludes. “This song is about the ground beginning to shake.”
Released alongside the single, the video for “Dive” (shot by award-winning San Francisco based filmmaker Dominic Mercurio) depicts a reckoning with the worst version of yourself. Featuring Lalin, it is a cautionary tale of diving deep into depression; blinding yourself to the beautiful world around you until you disassociate with you really are. “In the video I’m confronting another aspect of myself. I’m in an unknown place, fighting with a piece of myself that I must eventually embrace,” Lalin explains.
The battle to overcome heaviness, felt as a result of political and social issues and through Lalin’s own experiences with combating depression, fuels CYAN. “I was at the edge of myself,” Lalin confesses. “This album is about pulling back the layers of who I am in order to push through sadness and grab onto what’s underneath. Now I’m learning to be unapologetically black, unapologetically queer, unapologetically a woman. Unapologetically myself.” Led by exposed yet bold musical endeavours from Aki, the album sees The Seshen delve into uncharted eclectic realms; “I think that there’s a lot more rawness on this record,” Aki muses.
