Francesca Morello, aka R.Y.F., ha released her new album Everything Burns, out on CD, vinyl and all digital platforms on September 10th, 2021 for Bronson Recordings, led by the singles Cassandra, Normal Is Boring (feat. So Beast), Not Going Anywhere and the new Don’t Panic with a new video directed by Simona Diacci Trinity premiered on Clout.
Thematically, R.Y.F’s Everything Burns is a radical confluence of rage and joy; sonically, it is a pressure-cooked combo of dance and punk. The fourth album from the solo project of Italy’s Francesca Morello, Everything Burns refuses to be confined by genre or emotional extremes, and is instead the synchronistic coexistence of opposites. It is music you could dance or destroy a room to, a cathartic balance of suffering and jubilation—an electropunk disco steeped in queer, feminist subversion.
“This album is for people who feel uncomfortable because of what they are—because other people tell them they are wrong,” says Morello. Queer and nonbinary and speaking directly to an audience of the marginalized, Morello combines “fiction and reality” to imbue individual feeling into mythological battles, inviting listeners to see themselves in an ever-important and painful human struggle for survival and acceptance. “I want people to know you are never alone, even if you feel that way sometimes.”
Everything Burns electrifies R.Y.F.’s anti-patriarchal position with unrelenting support for the underclass and a defiant hope in the future the people can build together. Pain is weaponized, and vulnerability is redefined not as a weakness, but a threat to the ruling class. The result is an explosive testament to the power of community and unguarded artistic expression. “Everybody has a role to play,” says Morello, “My message is my voice.”
Everything Burns is R.Y.F.’s first foray into electronic music, and an homage to a period of explosive creativity and inspiration. With the pandemic forcing musicians off the road, Morello found herself at home working less with a guitar and more with synthesizers and drum machines, instruments she had long admired in avant-garde bands like Moor Mother and Special Interest.
Frustrated by the government’s lack of support for artists and seeking a creative community, Morello auditioned at the internationally-acclaimed theater company Motus (MDLSX, Panorama, NELLA TEMPESTA), and began writing songs to pitch the group’s new production Tutto Brucia, based on Jean Paul Sartre’s adaptation of the Greek tragedy The Trojan Women. At the same time, Morello’s label, Bronson Recordings, called to ask if she was working on an album. “I said no, but I am working on this other thing,” says Morello.
Morello advanced in the theater and began work on the album she would name after the english translation of the play, Tutto Brucia (“Everything Burns”). She wrote every note and lyric in two weeks and completed the recordings with Andrea Cola (Sunday Morning) and under the supervision of multi instrumentalist and musician Bruno Dorella (Ronin, OvO, Bachi da Pietra) in two weeks more. Mix and master of the record were then realized by Maurizio Baggio (The Soft Moon, Boy Harsher). “It was really fast and really special. For the first time in 20 years, I finally felt free to let everything inside me come out,” says Morello, “There was no plan. It was like a work of inspiration that was burning inside of me.”
R.Y.F. continues her celebration of the marginalized with the electro-experimental banger and transfeminist anthem Don’t Panic — an encouraging tribute to the strength and difficulty of coming out, chosen as brand new single. The line “YOU HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN BY ALIENS” — repeated to the effect of a strobe-lit hypnosis or post-punk affirmation—alludes to Morello’s experiences growing up non-binary. “I felt like an alien,” she says, “It was traumatic. I wasn’t happy for a long time.” When Morello finally left her small hometown at age 30, she felt like her “mind was cleansed” of the lies she was told, opening herself up to better understand and embrace herself. R.Y.F states: “Don’t Panic describes what you feel when the coming out seems impossible when you feel trapped and powerless. Hey!!! You’ve not been taken by aliens!!! It is all fine!!! That’s my message to support my big queer family out there”.
