“To Your Own Devices” By Kate Bollinger

Kate Bollinger shares “To Your Own Devices,” The track is off her forthcoming album Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind, available September 27th on Ghostly International (Ginger Root). The song, which follows the previously released “Any Day Now,” finds Bollinger following a sunswept melody to deliver a series of hushed, second-person observations: “Now you’re in a pinch/The mirror makes you flinch/And all this time, were you not making sense?” Along with the new track, Kate Bollinger announces a fall North American tour in support of Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind.

Of “To Your Own Devices,” Bollinger says “In May of 2023, my friends Al, Parker (Essential Forever and Good Dog Nigel respectively) and I decided to each try and write a song a day. This is one that I wrote at that time. We recorded it on the third day of the album sessions in the Catskills, live to tape, and without headphones.”

Of the music video, co-directed by Bollinger and Nikki Milan Houston, she says “When I first moved to Los Angeles, I came across a book of old Japanese designs called MOGA, a catchword meaning ‘modern girls’ that was used to describe fashionable city women who embraced westernized modes and manners in the 1920s. In the book I found a surrealist design that depicted a woman, underwater with fish swimming around her, wearing a beautiful costume, and stirring a giant fish bowl like a pot of soup and I knew immediately that I wanted to recreate the scene for the album cover. I wrote a script for the music video and brought in filmmaker Nikki Milan Houston as my co-director and set designer. We brought in Odie Summers as set fabricator and in a friend’s studio downtown, a kitchen set was built over several days and came to life because of the distinctive skills and devotion of everyone involved.”

Written during a period of transience and change, Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind was made to resemble a mixtape—something carefully crafted and delivered from just one person to another. In sharing this music with listeners, Bollinger took inspiration from her own formative encounters with art: quietly worshiping the early musical projects of her older brothers, attending local shows in Charlottesville and feeling empowered to write songs of her own, inheriting burned CDs from older classmates and finding a portal to another world. (Working with her friends Emma Collins and Evangeline Neuhart on the visual accompaniment, Bollinger assures the entire project feels equally communal and intuitive.)

Kate Bollinger
Songs From A Thousand Frames Of Mind
Track List:

1. What’s This About (La La La La)
2. To Your Own Devices
3. Any Day Now
4. God Interlude
5. Lonely
6. Running
7. In A Smile
8. Postcard From A Cloud
9. I See It Now
10. Sweet Devil
11. All This Time

Kate Bollinger 2024 tour dates

10/5 – Boulder CO – eTown Hall
10/7 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry
10/8 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
10/10 – Toronto, ON – Longboat Hall
10/11 – Montreal, QC – Petit Campus
10/12 – Boston, MA – Arts at The Armory
10/13 – Brattleboro, VT – Stone Church
10/15 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/17 – Philadelphia, PA – Ukie Club
10/18 – Washington, DC – Black Cat
10/19 – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern
10/21 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle (Back Room)
10/22 – Asheville, NC – Eulogy
10/24 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
10/25 – Nashville, TN – Third Man
10/26 – St Louis, MO – Off Broadway
10/28 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s Majestic Lounge
10/29 – Oklahoma City, OK – Resonant Head
10/30 – Denton, TX – Rubber Gloves
11/12 – Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst Atrium
11/14 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
11/15 – Seattle, WA – Madame Lou’s
11/16 – Vancouver, BC – Fortune Sound Club
11/20 – Sacramento, CA – Starlet Room
11/21 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent
11/22 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom