Now that Carissa Johnson feels that she’s lost her mind, she doesn’t want any help finding it. Boston’s straight-faced rock dynamo surrenders to the delirium of 2020 in her new single and video “Wasted Dreams,” released yesterday (August 12).
Like many entries in the new “2020 apocalypse” genre, “Wasted Dreams” documents a “what’s the point?” artistic breakdown of sorts, as Johnson watches her own four walls fade into unfamiliar territory. But when the going gets weird, the weird get going, and Johnson responds to her self-described “quarantine fever dream” by blasting off from her own brain and into suspended animation. Suddenly, those old “So Far So Good” lyrics about “finding a home inside your head” didn’t ring true any longer.
“I started to feel homesick in my own house,” Johnson comments. “Home, for me, is the life I had before of being in motion and on tour, so actually being in my house felt foreign… It’s about that feeling of being so wrapped up in your head that you can’t even understand one ounce of reality.”
The claustrophobia of 2020 shattered a sliver of Johnson’s mental peace, but it shattered her gritty musical mold, too. While Johnson remains of one of Boston’s most staunch devotees of hard rock, her straight-laced riffs come colored with synthed-up whimsy in “Wasted Dreams,” laying the foundation for the varied sound of her forthcoming fall album Blue Hour.
“I used to feel like I had to be more restrictive or formulaic and force the songs I was writing to fit my ‘sound’ but now I want my sound to grow and change with me,” Johnson explains. “I used to be so protective and would overthink the lyrics I’d write, not really saying exactly what I wanted to. It’s been a process of getting over feeling super terrified and vulnerable, but I’m trying to embrace it and write exactly how I feel.”
Rocket away from reality with Johnson below.
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