Stres

Grief and longing has always been a part of Stres aka Sasha Bolof’s song writing DNA. But instead of hitting you over the head with them, she folds them into sonic textures and melodies. Visceral yet hard to place with her often poetic and cryptic lyrics.

On her latest album sea//grams Stres deals with themes of isolation and substance abuse, discussing the search for authenticity and living within neoliberal austerity. All while using the main motif, the ocean.

“The sea in sea//grams is both literal and a metaphor. It’s the ocean but it’s also the subconscious,” Stres reveals. She also confesses there are hidden messages about her own gender in her lyrics. “Subconsciously I was definitely dealing with trans stuff at that point. It just wasn’t something I had the capacity to confront then.”