Callie Joy Porter

Callie Joy Porter’s “Darkness & Soul” unravels hidden emotions and inner battles with haunting honesty. In this interview, she shares the personal experiences and introspective truths that shaped the album’s creation.

1. “Darkness & Soul” explores deep emotional territories and the hidden parts of the human psyche. What personal experience or turning point first inspired you to create this album?
I’ve been years involved with people who needed different sorts of guidance. I have seen and felt how people broke in front of me since I was 9 years old, because I’ve been a tarot card reader since I was that young. One thing that was a repeated common denominator, and triggered my need to help others was how people were willing to give up on themselves, so easily, giving away all their power to someone or something else, trying to people please and I could relate, it came a time when I noticed, I also did that. And I said enough is enough, so I hope someone else listening to my album will get that Aha moment that got me out of my comfort zone enough to realize that I can follow my own path.

2. The album blends dark indie, cinematic pop, ethereal and ambient elements. How did you approach shaping the soundscape to match the intensity and intimacy of the themes?
My music is so intimately connected to me and my belief and my experiences that I simply listen to my heart, disconnect my head and combined with everything I’ve lived as a woman, as a single mom, as a human being, it simply flows through me. My music is easily comparable to a stream that unleashes out of me. Like untethered flames, so to speak.

3. You speak about impostor syndrome and the conflict between darkness and the soul. How did working on this project change your relationship with vulnerability and self-perception?
This project is more a release than a shift. It’s everything I wanted, everything I feared, and everything I dreamed of having and saying “what if” a lot. It helped me to let go of the impostor syndrome, though sometimes it still creeps its head because apparently my brain thinks it’s funny to test me at times, but… I am free. And this is my release.. And the one that’s coming next, it’s my renewal. Yes, I am already working on a second album that releases on the 11th of December.

4. Each track carries distinct emotional weight. Could you choose one song from the album that was the hardest to write and explain why?

Claim to Know You it’s the hardest, because… it involved to talk me into writing it. Not writing it, publishing it, sending it out into the world. I repeatedly listened to it and it simply hit a sensible point for some reason.

5. Your music is described as haunting, raw, and mystical, echoing artists like Florence + The Machine and Grimes. What influences—musical or otherwise—played the biggest role in shaping this record?
The  biggest role is the lack of  filter I have and the NEED I had to send out a message.  Minorities and women are mostly seen as people who have not enough voices? I’m both.  I was hungry for music that would showcase all the fear of the dark, all the struggling, all the ‘I cannot do that’ that is involved in the process of not finding yourself,  but of owning up to who you truly are. Because THAT is the hardest thing we can all do.

6. The album emphasizes that we all share these hidden inner layers, not just the performer. What do you hope listeners feel or confront when they experience “Darkness & Soul” from start to finish?
Their own echos. We are all layered, like you said it perfectly. We all share aspects, both emotionally, spiritually, socially, whether we know it or not. Most of that is hidden in the darkness we don’t want to show anyone else. I’m showing mine. I hope mine, lights up the parts that need to be shown for those who listen. I’m grateful for even those parts inside me. If you don’t face that within, it shows it outside.  And I know it hurts, and it’s lonely, and it’s tiring. But we all deserve to be able to live a full life. Not just pieces of one.  I can only hope people are able to go within and follow their dreams after it.

callieplopez (@cjporterofficial) • Photos et vidéos Instagram