Downtempo Iconoclast The Angel Discusses Her New Single and Video for “Words Like Daggers” featuring Jhelisa

“Words Like Daggers” is the first new artist recording from The Angel, in nearly a decade. The acclaimed record producer and film/TV composer is known for pioneering a progressive dubtronic fusion of sounds on her records and in her film and TV score throughout her career.

Though her focus has more recently been on composing, she has produced, remixed, and collaborated with Bay Area rapper/singer Mystic, The Pharcyde, Tre ‘SlimKid3’ Hardson, Spearhead, London jungle MC Navigator, and Bristol’s More Rockers/Smith & Mighty amongst others, and has featured many of these artists on her albums and singles, including her lauded debut album, “No Gravity.”

The current contemplative lush electronic “Words Like Daggers,” written and produced by The Angel features longtime collaborator, vocalist and songwriter Jhelisa (“Friendly Pressure”). Angel reveals,”Jhelisa and I have become close friends over the years, so she already understood the emotional weight of the track before I asked to feature her.”

Though recorded a while ago, “Words Like Daggers” was only completed and mixed in July, as it was chosen by Rain Phoenix for her LaunchLeft “Launched Artists Digital Singles Series,” honoring her brother, River, for what would have been his 50th birthday this month. There’s an emotional component; The Angel is their cousin and finishing the song was a challenge.

With COVID-19 in full effect, there was a loose plan to make an understated, homemade video for “Words Like Daggers”. But when award-winning director and friend, Mark Pellington agreed to come onboard, everything changed. Mark reveals, “I loved the track and understood Angel’s personal expressionism and intention and felt I could help the creative effort.” The collaboration between The Angel and the directing team of Mark Pellington, Sergio Pinheiro and Sweeten created an emotional nocturnal collage way beyond The Angel’s expectations. And we asked The Angel for some further background.

You’ve worked with Jhelisa in the past. Can you tell us how you wound up working together?

Jhelisa is an exceptional vocalist. She so beautifully channels the essence of whatever emotion needs to come through in the most evocative and visceral way. Interestingly enough, Mark Pellington, Jhelisa and I all go back to the 90s when we all lived in London forging our individual creative paths. Not many people know that Jhelisa sings some of the backing vocals on the single, “Spirit of Love” that I recorded for Delicious Vinyl back in the day… now there’s some history. From there we always stayed in touch. Jhelisa is featured on my single, “Ultra Light,” and I’ve incorporating her vocals in some of my film score. Looking ahead, there are more of Jhelisa’s vocal textures coming up on my forthcoming album, “Xtra Sensory Goodness,” an instrumental cinematic dubscape due this fall.

What was it like producing the video during COVID-19?

An exercise in gratitude… We had two weeks to deliver, so we hit the ground running. But regardless of all the challenges that came with safely shooting and producing during a pandemic, working with Mark Pellington and his brilliant team, gave me a sense of creative freedom and possibility… a real up during such bleak times. Everyone, including our cinematographers Alfeo Dixon in ATL (for Jhelisa) and Eve M Cohen in L.A. (for my footage) was generous with their talent and Jhelisa’s performance is just stunning. I’m grateful for Mark’s emotional creativity, his artist-to-artist approach. He challenged and encouraged me to write an internal dialogue that is separate from my lyrics. His vision was to use them as onscreen narrative and also as the framework for a voiceover. He inspired me to create new music beds that make up the intro and outro of the video. After many years of scoring film and TV, it was inspiring to reverse engineer the bookends of the video, and treat them like film in this way.

That’s interesting because there’s a cinematic quality to this single. Can you talk about your experience as a film and television composer?

Ever since I had my first taste of “working to picture”, on features like, GRIDLOCK’D (Tupac/Tim Roth) and BOILER ROOM (Giovanni Ribisi/Ben Affleck), I’ve become more passionate about composing than songwriting over the years. Collaborating with directors like AVA DUVERNAY, Menhaj Huda (KiDULTHOOD) and producers Glen Mazzara and Jada Pinkett Smith (HAWTHORNE) to create their vision for a project, is inspiring and fulfilling in a completely different way. I get to immerse myself in the world of a film or a series, where I can nuance score to the scenes and performances, leading me to do things things I would never do as a record producer/recording artist. It has broadened my skills, creativity and palette.

I read that you’d recorded the song a while ago. Why did it take until now to finish it?

“Words Like Daggers” is an exploration of loss… the agonizing breakdown of a deep connection, merged with other poignant losses, like the loss of my bass player and spiritual brother, Robert Russell, who plays on the record. Over time, I’d open the session, determined to complete the thought, but within twenty minutes, I’d be in tears, wrecked. When I made the commitment to LaunchLeft, COVID-19 had everyone in the world processing loss on such a large scale that it felt cathartic and even more meaningful to dive back in, tears and all, and share the song within the context of remembering River. It has become an unexpected and important part of my healing process… a touching reminder that the process is ongoing.

Is there something specific that you’d like your audience to take away from “Words Like Daggers” and the video?

I wanted the song to sound like a memory, like you’ve entered someone else’s dream space… leaving room for you to interpret it in any way that resonates for you. The emotion is contained, very internal, so I juxtaposed a vocal vulnerability against a driving, incessant rhythm, where you can feel the underlying tension at the same time as experiencing the gentle plea, “Where’s my shelter…?” Something we can all relate to. As for the video, Jhelisa is the evocative messenger who draws us into self reflection, unleashing demons, showing us what it feels like to maintain both power and empathy in the face of adversity. The takeaway is that we prevail.

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