Inamorata

A woman who believes coloring her crowning glory green makes her one of her beloved plants, a musician who, if not singing,

is out playing with her dogs, creating macramé, working with make-up,

or in a plant nursery gasping over a new variety of Monstera she can bring home to her bedroom to sleep beside.

A walking statement that bra is not for everyone,

and a songwriter who has a song written inspired by the insect world.

Meet Siobhan Morris of Davao based band Cerise.

Here, we explore one of her unseen;

one of her songs titled “Inamorata”.

We asked Siobhan to share with us the creative process,

and what the song is all about.

Now we get to see a glimpse of her music world.

    

“An inamorata is a female lover, and the song is about loving a woman so hard that she becomes the center of your universe, but that love becomes your ultimate downfall. 

 

The inamorata is your self-empowered and independent woman who doesn’t need your love to survive, but will at least keep you around up until the very moment she decides she’d rather leave for solitude or for something more worthwhile. That’s just a nice way of saying it’s manipulative, I suppose.

    

It’s a pessimistic, selfish view on love in the sense that you’re being consumed by someone who is incapable of showing the same affection back to you, but you’re being blinded by the glimmer in her eye.

 

It’s really supposed to make you feel upset or angry for the inamorata’s partner, but the song’s groove distracts from that.

 

 

I wrote this song speaking rhetorically, a mix-up of stories I’ve heard from friends getting in and out of what I thought, were terrible relationships. I felt frustrated and went to write the song as my secret perspective of how I saw things in my view.

 

Songwriting, singing and arranging music has given me the platform to say exactly what I want to say without having to explain it in extreme detail. No one had to know what I was singing about unless they asked. And everyone is entitled to hear the song and its lyrics and elaborate upon their own interpretation, yet there can never be a wrong answer to what it means.

 

    

 

The beauty is that someone could listen to Inamorata and consider it a love song about a gorgeous romance between two people and I wouldn’t tell them otherwise. Though they’re my words, the stories are universal. Some people want to dance to the song but others would want to cry.

 

    

 

When we released the song in our EP, I made an accompanying zine that had all the lyrics and some stories behind all the songs. So for inamorata, I talked about how I was inspired by the female praying mantes, and I got a few funny remarks from when I stated: “This song isn’t so literal in the sense of a human relationship but more within the insect world.” And proceeded to talk about how the female praying mantis bites their partners head off during sex, and then eats them, which in turn feeds her future children.

 

    

 

It was totally confusing for me to say that an episode of animal planet inspired me to write this catchy love song but it was part of the creative process toward the song which I wanted to share to show how broad the symbolism behind a song can be.”

 

    

 

For anyone who is looking for their music can head on to Spotify and search their band name “Cerise” We have also included a link below! 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5HeWKf0GFjz9Nje8pfhubj?si=-RTDMwd-Tl6Rvhxqp625Fw

 

 

Photos by: Monika Rivilla