Hearing Aide: Brooklyn Rock Duo Power Pose Release Debut Album, “I’m Looking”

Brooklyn-based rock duo Power Pose have released their debut full-length album I’m Looking, released on July 1, with a fiery first single in the drum-backed “Honey.”

Power Pose

Formed in 2017, Power Pose serves up 90’s infused indie rock with a fresh feminist perspective. Inspired by emotionally evocative performers like PJ Harvey, Sleater-Kinney and Gossip, Jacqueline Bodley (guitar/vocals) and Kelly Rudman (drums) approach their songwriting with fierce candor. Together, this duo has crafted a brash, self-assured sound that commands attention.

Bodley and Rudman share a feminist outlook that informs their art from involved in #MeToo movement, to writing lyrics are both an exploration of self and an examination of the ways that women must work to navigate their environments. Feelings of isolation, desire, fantasy, escapism, and the urgent need to reclaim one’s agency are woven into the fabric of their songs. These feelings are expressed forward with danceable beats and driving guitar riffs in their new songs.

Power Pose “Honey”

Their first single “Honey,” is a DIY, carefree video–an at-home dance party complete with playful colors and wigs as the duo jam together. With a nod to Joan Jett’s anthemic rock-n-roll style, “Honey” kicks off with a pounding drum beat and went along with the thumping rhythm, winding bass groove and infectious guitar riffs. Their sultry vocals added the tune a flirtatious, playful energy as the duo remains carefree, confident and unabashedly themselves.

Setting the tone in the opening verse, Bodley sings, “Saw it on TV / Did I waste my time / Cause it feels like I / Spent all my life / Taking what was offered me.” The track sees the duo unwilling to settle, to get nothing less than what they deserve, and encourages listeners to do the same.

The lyrics for “Honey” originated in a dark place, but the song transforms that darkness into something joyful and empowering. When you aren’t well, it’s easy to lose confidence and feel disconnected from your physical self. “Honey” is about someone living vicariously through the media they consume and plunging into fantasy to escape their reality. Ultimately, the narrator wakes herself up to reclaim her strength and sexual confidence. The song is about shaking off your insecurities and completely letting go. Its danceability celebrates the feeling of moving and connecting with your body.

Bodley

The video, made with an iPhone and shot, directed and edited by Bodley herself, allowed the duo to play with identity, blur reality and fantasy, and act out different personas. They would like to invite the audiences to join the fantasy with the boundary-blurred reality and fiction expressed in this music.

Power Pose I’m Looking

In addition to the single, the duo’s full-length debut album I’m Looking arrived July 1, 2022. Over the seven tracks, the duo finds a new approach to their womanhood as they explore themes like desire, agency, modern romance and everything in between. They are unafraid to confront emotions ranging from rage to carefree joy while they find strength in taking back their space and bodies. Feminist and fearless, Power Pose offer a gritty and honest point of view that brings catharsis during a time of reckoning, which redefined womanhood and reclaimed their agency and femininity as they blaze their own trail.

The tone of the album was heavily influenced by what was going on culturally at the time. MeToo was a huge part of the news when we first started writing music together, and there seemed to be constant think pieces being published that explored women’s perspectives in unprecedented ways. This got us thinking about our past experiences in a new light. The ways that women are socialized to approach desire and pleasure, the ways we are stereotyped and objectified, the ways that we are expected to behave and the coping mechanisms we develop to navigate social pressures. These were all themes that were simmering in our minds when we wrote these songs.

Bodley

Bold, bouncy and confident, “Honey,” out everywhere now, allows Power Pose to assert themselves as they fiercely claim their space and reconnect with their bodies. In a time of a raging pandemic and reproductive rights in question, Power Pose feel reinvigorated and ready to bring forth their fresh perspective with their debut album I’m Looking, out July 1, 2022 and available for pre-order now.

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