“But you realise once they take away your joy, you have nothing left. So, we really need it now, and we need it more than ever. I think it’s a big reason why the capitalist machine and our government consistently defunds the arts programmes, because they know how powerful it is, and they know how much art connects people to each other, and the way that music connects people to each other. It’s such a universal language that it creates brotherhoods and sisterhoods and it helps us resist the tyranny of fascism, or oppressive governments, oppressive police regimes,” Izzie explains. Beyond escapism, music has always offered a way to communicate, a way to feel, a way to process a world that grows more and more hectic by the day. And while at first, chokecherry may have felt it was a luxury to be able to write, record, and release their debut record, the duo felt compelled to approach their mentality a little bit differently, Scarlett agrees, “Joy is essential. Once tyrannical regimes strip away our ability to have joy and experience joy, and remove your ability to congregate and find like-minded people – once you lose that community space, and once you lose that world, that’s when they win. That’s what they want. So joy is an act of resistance in the face of absolute horror.”
