Kevin Bronson on July 25th, 2020

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L.A. duo Changing is the collision of musical sensibilities — not to mention a mission statement — from two artists well-known in the local scene, Taleen Kali and Greg Katz.

The collaboration predates the pair’s current projects: It started as Kali segued from TÜLIPS to a solo project and Katz matriculated from his work as the bassist in LA Font to founding his own band Cheekface.

They released their first two singles this week, “Not a Citizen” and “Damage Prone,” embracing a sound Kali calls a “love letter to riot grrrl and classic ’70s-’80s glam rock,” a dose of timely urgency and brawn considering the songs’ cultural currency. The tunes are both products of their time — they were written in 2016, but the demos were lost when Katz’s laptop got stolen, so the duo reconvened in quarantine to record them again — and the current era.

“It was a jaded time,” Kali said of the original sessions. “L.A. was changing so much and it didn’t feel like the city I grew up in anymore. Pehrspace had shut down, and we didn’t have a spot to play regular shows. Most of these songs are about emotional exile and reclaiming a sense of power, contending with impossible truths. So many school shootings and police brutality were happening that year, too, and a lot of harm in our DIY community. I was thinking a lot about what happens in communities when there is harm but no proper support or accountability. How capitalistic and patriarchal structures trickle down even into DIY microcosms.”

Kali says “Not a Citizen” was inspired by the acclaimed book-length poem “Citizen” by Jamaican-born writer Claudia Rankine, a work that the author calls a meditation on “invisible racism.” Says Kali: “I was thinking a lot about otherness and belonging and citizenship and exile and wanting to learn how to affect change, not having yet learned about transformative justice.”

On the other hand, she says, “‘Damage Prone’ is inspired by stories of my own, and stories from my friends: very strong women. We’ve all dated ‘that guy’ who seemed pretty neutral at first and drawn to a strong woman who he’s ended up trying to compete with or control, and then at the end, can’t. That attitude of possession, entitlement, toxic masculinity, harms everyone involved – and I think the term ‘damage prone’ encapsulated a clapback, and the whole song ended up being built around that lyric.”

The songs are out via Katz’s label, New Professor Music.

||| Stream: “Not a Citizen” and “Damage Prone”