Big Joanie Shares Spellbinding 'Sainted' Single

Black feminist punk band Big Joanie have released new album single "Sainted" alongside a spine-tingling official video directed by Leanne Davies. This is the latest single from their highly anticipated new album Back Home due out November 4 via Kill Rock Stars (US) and Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz's Daydream Library Series (UK).

Drummer & vocalist Chardine Taylor-Stone shares, "Taking inspiration from Wicca and Orisha worship spiritual practices amongst the African diaspora, 'Sainted' creates a new Black British folk-gothic aesthetic just in time for Halloween/Samhain."

Director Leanne Davies shares, "I was really inspired by the theme of ancestral connections to nature in the track, and by the idea that something as simple as the smell of lavender can transform the everyday. We're close to Samhain, which is all about connecting with the otherworld and your ancestors, so I wanted to make sure we referenced this. I imagined it as a cross between Picnic at Hanging Rock, Blair Witch Project, and The Craft; dreamy and magical with a dark edge. The track is rhythmic and ritualistic, so even without visuals it's compelling and spell-like."

Already enjoying accolades spanning FADER, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Afropunk, Stereogum, Consequence, Alternative Press and Under The Radar, the band's new collection builds on the band's tightly knit, lo-fi punk formula to bring forth a collage of blazing guitars, downtempo dance punk, and melancholic strings that evoke the full depth of the band's expansive art punk vision. The album title references a search for a place to call home, whether real or metaphysical. "It's about the different ideas of home," explains Stephanie.

"Whether that's here in the UK, back in Africa or the Caribbean, or a place that doesn't really exist; it's neither here nor there." The striking embroidered cover art, designed by multidisciplinary artist Angelica Ellis, is a depiction of Chardine's nephew at the barber. It is a reference to the embroidered wall hangings popular in Caribbean homes post-Windrush that were a callback to the homes they left behind.

Outside of Big Joanie, all three band members manage a formidable array of solo projects. Stephanie is a freelance music writer and became a published author last year with Why Solange Matters. Estella works on the music program Girls Rock London and is part of the collective behind Decolonise Fest with Stephanie. Chardine is a prominent voice in the LGBTQ community, is working on a book about Black feminism and was the vice chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee at Musician's Union in 2021.

Despite their many accomplishments, there is so much more the band wants to achieve. With their boundary-breaking approach to punk, radical politics, and an appreciation for earworm melodies, Big Joanie are set to become important voices for a new generation of punks.

Watch the new music video here:

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