Coping Fantasies by Power Plush

Power Plush have built themselves a universe - out of cotton wool, construction foam and modeling clay, cosy and colorful, far away from the grey of the Saxon hinterland and the crises of our time. This universe is meant to be a shelter for those hurt and crushed by definable and indefinable worries. A resting place that makes us forget world pain and world events, even if only for a moment, through its comfort. A safe space for all those who are alone with inextricable knots of emotion and need a shoulder to lean on. For Anja, Maria, Svenja and Nino, the first inhabitants of this universe, Power Plush has been fulfilling this purpose for several years. The band structure is free of hierarchies: with guitarists Maria and Svenja and bassist Anja, three vocalists and writers share the front of the stage at gigs. Together with drummer Nino, they have developed a creative trademark that has long enriched the indie pop scene and could change it for good. Power Plush combine influences from various decades of pop history, moving somewhere between Woodstock and college rock, flowery indie, post-punk and alternative from the future decades - driven by feather- light immediacy, yet full of electricity and always with their hearts ahead.

But let's start from the beginning. Power Plush found each other in the Chemnitz music scene in Germany in 2019 and were complete in their current line-up in 2020. Their common centre of life has been considered an important progressive engine of the German cultural landscape and the Gallic village of the East not only since the band's founding - between Kosmos Chemnitz, Kraftklub, Bikini Kommando and Atomino, Power Plush benefit from a rich creative network. The fact that they are the first signing of the label Beton Klunker Tonträger, run by the trio Blond, is proof of this once again. Power Plush sparkled as a support act for big domestic acts Kraftklub, Beatstakes, Tocotronic, Leoniden and Blond and were nominated in the category "Best Newcomer" at the 2022 VUT Indie Awards. After a tremendous festival run in the summer season of 2022, the band is finally releasing their first album: "Coping Fantasies".

The band's first release, the EP "Vomiting Emotions", released in autumn 2021, was already a call to live out sensibility. After this chaotic emotional breakup now follows the deep dive, Power Plush arrange and concretize their themes and thoughts. "Coping Fantasies" reflects learning successes from the time of the EP's creation and recent stage experiences - instrument playing, writing ping-pong and melody development have become noticeably more experienced and self-confident. For the first time, the band consciously takes up space, has created a sound that perhaps seems a little less dreamy, but a lot more pointed, more dramatic, just bigger than it did a year and a half ago. A sound that breaks out more courageously and breathes more intensively, that belongs on larger stages and can actually be transferred one-to-one to the live situation. Mario Simic, who has worked with Mavi Phoenix, Rikas and Bruckner in the past, was once again responsible for the production and his input and fine-tuning contributed significantly to the warm and wavy atmosphere of this record.

In terms of content, "Coping Fantasies" is an unagitated manifesto and an emotional roller coaster all at once. It's a smiley whose mouth constantly takes on new shapes. A twelve-part ride through all emotional states. The blossoming opener "Butterfly" and the dynamic "Heavenly" are to be understood as a bridge between EP and LP and indicate the broad field of tension of the record. With the unusually jagged "Leave Me Alone", Power Plush directly follow up with a volcano eruption and deliver what is probably the most unmistakable political statement in the band's history so far. "Leave Me Alone", created in a collective
writing process, is an angry experience report and a consistent declaration of solidarity with all FLINTA* who feel threatened by vultures on their way home at night: "you're the ones to blame, we're not the toys in your horrible game". Word.

In "Nothing Left To Lose", "She Changed" and "All I See", Power Plush then devote themselves to more introspective topics, embedded in a decelerated ambience. Svenja, Anja and Maria describe experiences from depressive phases, go on a search back to the self, offer help to fellow human beings in similar situations, pause, breathe in, breathe out. "Emergency // Freeze" - a piece about the oppressive negative mental spiral of involuntary idleness, blackout, even more involuntary idleness and harder blackout - is followed by the two-part contemplation of a toxic love relationship. The rocking, snotty "Girl He Toxic" and the plush, stirring "Make Me Happy" bundle observations on the same topic - from two perspectives that could hardly be more different. The rebellious and playful piece "Trashcan", like the dreamy duet "Goodbye", deals with separation processes, but in different ways. While "Trashcan" detaches the band from dark, societal demons in a homoristic and self-ironic way, "Goodbye" revolves around the agonising parting from beloved partners, which sometimes seems unavoidable: "An end that gives us peace, its closure that we need, to save what's left of us".

Finally, at the end of "Coping Fantasies" there is a song that bundles everything that makes up the Power-Plush-Family and feels like a warm blanket. "Utopia" is a kind of site plan of the miniature universe "Coping Fantasies", a blueprint for comparable parallel universes and a healthier coexistence, but at the same time by no means an attempt at a universal solution. Like the whole album, "Utopia" is an ode to tenderness, solidarity and love.

our new single "Blue" is out 28/11/2024!

OUR 2ND RECORD "LOVE LANGUAGE" WILL BE OUT ON 25 APRIL 2025!

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