MATISSE is a singer and songwriter from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she is currently based. Her upcoming debut album, Death & Desire, was recorded largely in an untreated bedroom and explores longing, anxious attachment and the effort of finding a place in the world. “I Breathe the Smoke” is a striking title. Breathing suggests something involuntary; smoke suggests a room where the damage has already happened.
Together, those words give the song an uneasy sense of intimacy. MATISSE has described Death & Desire as a record concerned with connection to yourself, your purpose and your community. The title fits that tension: staying close to something even as it clouds your view. The bedroom recording matters to the album’s premise. A space this familiar gives its questions about belonging a concrete setting. With Death & Desire, MATISSE is writing about the pull toward other people and the slower work of understanding herself.
