SPELLLING - Debby Friday

"Chrystia Cabral dances the line between straightforward dream pop and aquatic, experimental electronic folk."

On Chrystia Cabral’s fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral’s lyrics for Portrait of My Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach of much of her previous work for something she says is “pointed into my human heart.” The album’s thematic forthrightness is echoed in its arrangements. Portrait of My Heart is the sharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date, and its immediacy emphasizes the essential mutability of Cabral’s practice. From the dark minimalism of her earliest music to the lavishly orchestrated prog-pop of 2021’s The Turning Wheel to this newly energetic expression of her creative spirit, Cabral has proved again and again that SPELLLING can be whatever she needs it to be.

She fearlessly draws the curtain back on parts of herself that she’s never included in SPELLLING before—her feelings of being an outsider, her overly guarded nature, the way she can throw herself recklessly into intimate relationships and then cool on them just as quickly. 

Debby Friday

Born in Nigeria then emigré to various parts of Canada – from Montreal to Vancouver to Toronto – DEBBY FRIDAY is a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary artist. Autodidactic by nature, she debuted in 2018 with the self-release of her self-produced EP, BITCHPUNK. Met with underground praise and her first public performances, this gave way to her second EP, 2019’s DEATH DRIVE (Deathbomb Arc). This release simultaneously marked her directorial debut with the lead single’s music video for FATAL. In 2020, she directed and starred in her first short film, an experimental piece titled BARE BONES.

From 2021-2022, FRIDAY wrote, directed and scored a science fiction audio-play trilogy, incorporating the use of generative art and AI. In 2023, she released her debut LP, GOOD LUCK (Sub Pop) to critical acclaim. The New York Times described the album as “ambitious and charismatic”, calling FRIDAY a “shape-shifting dynamo journeying through different tempos and genres.” FRIDAY undertook several dedicated tours in Canada, the USA, Europe and Australia to promote the record. Six months following its release, the album was crowned the winner of the 2023 Polaris Music Prize.

A self-described experimentalist, FRIDAY’s art practice spans the spectrum of the audio-visual. Her work frequently explores themes of hybridity, the erotic and the esoteric. FRIDAY is currently working on her second LP, due in 2025. In her free time, she runs an experimental writing blog, thediaries.online.