Ethereal singer-songwriter Saint Avangeline returns with her new single + video, “Carolina Creature.” Sparked from memories of an old relationship, the track unfolds in a dreamlike haze as she reflects on complicated feelings from their early days together. Looking at the relationship through rose-colored lenses, she realizes the person is no longer who they once were. The accompanying video captures the track’s murky reverie, as Saint Avangeline and a faceless partner enjoy a seemingly gorgeous day at the lake.
“On our first date we went to a lake and had such a lovely day; I remember them spinning me around in the water and feeling so happy and warm,” Saint Avangeline says. “‘Carolina Creature’ is about looking back on that day, but from a place of realizing how they turned out to be a completely different person than I thought they were.”
For Saint Avangeline, making music is a conduit for self-salvation—a divine catharsis she refers to as “sucking the poison out of my soul.” The 23-year-old lesbian, Atlanta-based independent artist brings a lavish originality to that process of transmutation, endlessly channeling her most unbearable feelings into songs steeped in a raw ethereal beauty. In the latest manifestation of her extravagant vision, Saint Avangeline now shares a selection of songs that drift from ethereal dream-pop to dark wave to a wildly enchanted genre all her own—ultimately charting a path from painful delusion to the sublime awakening of true love.
As she looks back on her work to date, Saint Avangeline speaks to the singular joy she’s discovered in communing with those who find solace in her music. “Sometimes queer women will reach out and tell me how it feels good that there’s someone creating my style of music but talking about the lesbian experience,” she points out. “I also hear from people who’ve gone through abuse or assault, and who tell me I expressed something that they couldn’t put into words on their own. At the end of the day I wrote all of these songs to save myself—so the idea that they could end up helping someone else really means so much to me.”
