In a political and social climate that instigates varying, majorly
negative sentiments at a daily rate, finding a mode to articulate
simultaneous anger, disappointment, and consequential gratitude for
existing comforts is a formidable feat. Enter EE Beyond, the Los
Angeles-based soul and R&B singer/songwriter whose sonic
influences stem from Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu, and whose lyrical
inspirations arise from the fictions she and her peers have been told.
Oscillating from a voice that is soft and gentle to one that can be sharp
and biting, Elaine Faye, the brainchild behind the project, tackles her
frustrations over personal and national circumstances with an
admirably controlled urgency.
EE Beyond’s debut EP, Watercolor Lies, shares the stories of the
“pretty lies” of Faye’s life–as a woman, as a person of color, as an
American, as a dreamer. “It’s a collection of a few different stories that
are all based around lies that you’ve let yourself experience or
expected yourself to have at any point in time,” Faye says. With aide
from producer Solomusiq, ne´ Malachi Clark, a fellow alumnus from
Faye’s alma mater, the Musicians Institute, EE Beyond takes Elaine
Faye’s soul band origins (she previously performed in L.A.-based
weareTheBigBang) and expands them through hip-hop production
and the occasional trap beat.
Home studio-recorded, Watercolor Lies begins with a community,
homebase perspective on “Dreamers Howl,” produced by Dane
Diamond. “[The song is] about experiencing frustrations as a
minority...the idea of growing up having dreams and growing up
thinking that there was a way to get out of a situation, and a lot of
times for people of color living in impoverished areas, that’s just a
really difficult possibility,” says Faye, who is originally from Port
Orchard, Washington, and moved to Chicago as a teenager. “When
we’re experiencing it together, you realize that what I’m experiencing,
you’re experiencing, too. It sucks, but at the end of the day, we’re not
gonna let it be the final blow to us, let it be the final say in our story.”
Above syncopated claps and an acoustic guitar strum are layered
vocal harmonies, emulating what sounds like a tribal chant. The
refrain of “I’ve got you” conveys EE Beyond’s communal experience of
feeling lied to, but overcoming it as a unified group.
On Watercolor Lies’ title track, EE Beyond sheds light on a lie that
rarely receives musical attention and treatment. Like many other
young working people in the United States who graduated from
college at the time of the recession, Faye found herself frustrated with
a lack of job opportunities, despite pursuing everything she had been
instructed to do to achieve success. “You’re taught about the
American dream and you’re taught that anybody can change your
circumstances and make things different with hard work and
education,” she says. “It’s kind of like the American dream has
changed.” “Is this how it’s gonna be the rest of our lives? / Working
three jobs just trying to survive?” EE Beyond asks in the track, later
accompanied by a staccato flute. “It’s almost like you’re running in one
of those hamster wheels,” she says.
EE Beyond confronts different kinds of lies on relationship-based
tracks “Too High (The Story of Us)” and “Enemy,” the EP’s final track.
The former uncovers lies the media provides audiences with about
love. Having grown up in a broken home–Faye’s father went to prison
when she was seven years old; her mother passed away when she
was fourteen– Faye recalls never receiving a proper “talk” about
navigating relationships. “It’s not what you see in Disney movies
growing up. It kind of becomes a bit of an expectation given a lot of
the things that we see and experience on TV, especially as a young
woman,” she says. On “Enemy,” a climactic piano ballad, Faye
considers the lies she’s told herself to stay in a relationship. Deep
bass and piano chords accompany her profession, “I’m my own worst
enemy/ Can’t you see? / I can’t control myself/ You’ll be the death of
me.” “You’re allowing yourself to be in a situation that you know you
shouldn’t be in, that you know is not good for you,” Faye says about
the track’s meaning. “You want that feeling of love; you want that
feeling of something more than what you have. You are creating your
own false narrative in order to deal with the effects and the
consequences of allowing someone else to use you.”
These false lies and social ironies are what EE Beyond questions and
confronts throughout Watercolor Lies. As the artist prepares for the
EP’s release and tour, she hopes that listeners will not feel down
about the content of her new tracks. “The EP is rather dark, but I don’t
think it’s dark, necessarily, in a depressing way,” she says. “I think it’s
a state of mind I was just trying to explore...Why are things like this
and how did it get here?” Watercolor Lies is a body of music that
exposes the lies EE Beyond has realized over time, but but its mission
is perhaps an optimistic one–not as much an exposure of lies, but a
quest for truth.