Mystery music - Kait's Mixtape

'My Skin'
Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant was an accidental discovery. I was sharing my laptop with roommates and they'd been using my iTunes to put music on their own MP3 players. One day when I was transferring new songs to my iPod this song got transferred over. I was driving the first time it came on and I was instantly addicted to it. 

When drawing it I wanted to capture the sharp edge to the whole thing. The song itself is incredibly gentle sounding and the lyrics are definitely up for interpretation. My understanding of it, simply based on how I've used it as part of my life soundtrack, is that we have all we need within ourselves to grow, change, let go and forgive. 

In Buddhism there is something called 'the genuine heart of sadness'. It's described as an incredibly tender sort of sadness felt for the whole human condition. Not pity but a sense of how difficult life is and how every human being shares that existence and a general longing to be kind and cultivate compassion as a result. To me this song is the genuine heart of sadness captured in lyrics and gentle strings accompanied by piano.