Ears Wide Open: Goblynne

Kevin Bronson on May 26th, 2023

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There’s nothing scary about Goblynne, unless you’re horrified by extravagant, emotional pop ballads.

Goblynne is the project of Molly Kirschenbaum, the touring bassist for Claud and winner of the Hollywood Encore Producers’ Award for the one-person show, “Hot!” That’s also the title of the album Goblynne will release on June 23.

The follow-up to the song “Alone With You,” the slow-burning “Where This Goes,” released today, is Goblynne’s fourth single for the album. Working with co-producer Adam Rochelle, Kirschenbaum created songs that explore the tenacity of performative femininity, even for those who reject it. “As a nonbinary person, I have often felt like femininity was something I either chose to engage with or was forced to engage with,” Kirschenbaum says. “I ended up creating this character in my head that this project was about, this person who embodies all the aspects of Western American beauty, blonde, blue-eyed, but a little tortured, a little haunted, and decided to try to free them from their body with this album.”

Along those lines, Goblynne’s shows (there’s one tonight) promise more than a little theater. “More is more!” says Kirschenbaum, who incorporates costumes and a fake meditation app into performances. “A live show should be about so much more than the music. I want people to feel like they are getting their money’s worth.” It’s all in an effort, Goblynne says, to communicate “the delicious, insane horrors of trying to be a girl, trying to be a person, trying to be anything.”

||| Stream: “Where This Goes” and “Only Thing”