Ears Wide Open: Sister Void

Matt Wallock on March 4th, 2022

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“Where do we go when we die?” Lindsey Nico Mann thrums on Sister Void’s latest single, “Blink,” a grunge-leaning dream-pop number about chasing what you want.

Mann is a visual artist — with credits on music videos by Major Lazer, Sophie Meiers and Teenage Wrist — whose Sister Void venture is now four singles old.

Mann teamed up with producer-engineer-guitarist Marshall Gallagher and drummer Anthony “Nino” Salazar — the duo behind Teenage Wrist — to bring “Blink” to life. (She initially met Gallagher by cutting in line with him to get into a bar, but the pair quickly “discovered a mutual love for platform shoes, chocolate fountains, bowling and other glorious things,” recalls Mann).

“I started this song by chugging along on my bass and thinking of some melodies and lyrics,” Mann explains on Bandcamp. “I wrote in a way to release fear and hesitation when it comes to love and taking chances in your life. Additionally, I wrote the chorus about literally maybe going blind and [needing] to blink quickly so I can see it all if I do. I usually have a lot of angst in me and want to yell or sing harder, but this song I went for a more mellow and dreamy approach because that’s what I felt.”

“Blink” is Mann’s fourth single as Sister Void following “Adam and Eve” (a dark experimental track), “Eye” and “Feed Me.” She started the project in 2020, landing on her chosen moniker because she’s “the youngest sister of four women with a Catholic upbringing” and “really liked the idea of a goth nun who had a fall from grace as ‘Sister Void.'”

The pulsing basslines and dreamy vocals of “Blink” suggest new wave influences, but Mann’s list of inspirations spans genres and decades. “At the beginning of Sister Void,” she says, “I was listening to a lot of Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Massive Attack, Rage Against the Machine, St. Vincent, Shame, Death Grips, the ‘Boogie Nights’ soundtrack, Mort Garson and Plantasia, Cher, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sextile, FKA Twigs and Nine Inch Nails, to name a few.”

Still, “Blink” and Sister Void’s previous single “Eye” feel like a step in a new direction. Both songs were made after Gallagher gifted Mann a bass, which has become part of her songwriting process. “‘Blink’ was one of those tunes that I began to write [and produce with Marshall] on Valentine’s Day in 2021,” she says. “We created the skeleton of the song, ate a junky fast food meal under $10 that shall not be named (my treat) and continued to fine-tune the guitars/synth/lyrics and melodies over a couple more sessions with Nino on drums. It was cool to release it exactly a year after it was started, on Feb. 14, 2022. I almost wasn’t so sure if I should put it out near the end because I began analyzing it too much but did it anyway to let it go. It felt nice.”

||| Stream: “Blink”