Roger Hoover
Gretchen Pleuss.
Way back in 2017, Matt DeRubertis (SEER Music), Spencer Martin, and singer-songwriter Gretchen Pleuss booked a full day at Martin’s studio to collaborate. They spent a good 10 to 12 hours working on what would become the song “Lolita.”
Pleuss has just released the track and its accompanying music video.
“Spencer [Martin] pieced all of our disjointed parts together in post-production,” says Pleuss in an email exchange. “It’s pretty unusual for any of us to go into a session without a pre-existing idea of how it’s going to turn out. It was such a fulfilling challenge. [We] hope this song evokes a sense of urgency and empowerment. For me, the lyrics originally stemmed from a place of disillusionment with where we were heading as a society.”
In the somber song, she references feminine literary characters who were “constructed through the lenses of men and portrayed as too soft, too erratic, or too seductive. “
“The main point I wanted to drive home was that power, deception, apathy and aggression should not be idolized, and these motivations have no place in leadership,” she says. “While these traits help drive storylines, they play out differently in real life and we all suffer the consequences.”
The accompanying music video uses three educational films: General Electric Company’s A is for Atom (1953); Brigham Young University’s Time Pulls the Trigger (1960); and Philip Ragan Productions’ One World or None (1946).
“History is cyclical, so while these films are decades old, they still feel relevant,” says Pleuss. “I think they tell a different story in conjunction with ‘Lolita.’”
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