Local indie rock band Strong Words have just released their third album, The Heaviness Needs a Lift. Cathy Foy is the lead vocals and guitarist for Strong Words, and her past projects include being the drummer for Browzer, The Awful Truth, The Circulars and Future of the Ghost. During this podcast, Foy discusses how personal this album is to her. “This album is a highly emotional album,” she says. “It basically is about relationships and also touches on my childhood.”
Music was a huge part of Foy’s upbringing because of her love for music. “What I did growing up was I would just go sit in my room and I would make mixtapes from my CDs and from the radio,” she says. “For me, that was a really magical time and something that I really miss.” Inspired by Cindy Blackman, Foy started to play drums. “They did a close-up of her playing,” says Foy, “and I was like, whatever she’s doing, I wanted to do that.” At 12 years old, her mother bought her a snare drum and, after practicing for a full year, she bought Foy a full drum-set.
The track “I Am From a Nowhere Place” is about growing up gay in Panguitch, Utah. “This is one of the more personal songs on the record,” she says. “I wrote this song so that I was kind of speaking to myself as a younger person, and just showing what I went through and giving a voice to that.” Born in an extremely small town, Foy expresses how difficult it was to grow up gay in a place where her voice and experiences were erased, and she was stuck in silence for many years. “It’s something you had to turn off or turn inward,” she says. “I think the beauty of that is that you have sort of a sacred place in yourself that’s just yours, and eventually that blossoms as an adult, or hopefully it does.”
The track you’ll hear on this podcast is “Big Love.” You can purchase The Heaviness Needs a Lift on iTunes, stream on Spotify or download at strongwords.bandcamp.com.
Thanks for listening to SLUG Mag Soundwaves.
- This podcast was created by SLUG Magazine and produced by Angela H. Brown and Secily Saunders
- Associate Producers: Alexander Ortega, Joshua Joye, John Ford, Kathy Zhou
- Executive Producer: Angela H. Brown
- Background music by Strong Words
- Soundwaves logo and art design by Nicholas Dowd
- Technical design by Kate Colgan
- Photo: Dani Glover
SLUG Magazine’s mission is to provide an honest journalistic alternative to mainstream coverage of arts, music, events and lifestyle. SLUG adds value to lifestyle through community engagement. Available in print and digitally on SLUGmag.com.