Let’s start this with a little bit of math. What do you get when you solve the equation below:
The death of your innocence
+ the trials of adulthood
+ dark humor as a coping mechanism
= ???
That’s right! You get my album Dixie Plaza.
As someone who has always wanted to finally get myself together and make an album, I never realized that sometimes it takes your worst moments to create something that you are genuinely proud of in the end result.
Listen to the song while reading the text.
This Monster called Dixie Plaza
Dixie Plaza is basically the summation of one of the worst years of my life. In the year of our Lord 2017, I was basically a child stuck in a twenty-one-year-old’s body. That quickly changed when I was forced to accept my responsibilities as an adult when I witnessed some of the closest people in my life crumble to addiction, destructive behavior, and all those big bad monsters that we are constantly warned about as children. Getting to see those monsters firsthand really awakened something in me that needed to get out; naturally, Dixie Plaza was conceived.
The name Dixie Plaza is incredibly significant to the inspiring dumpster fire that was 2017. It is the name of a notorious hotel in my town that has always been rife with rumors of drug busts, prostitution, and sordid behavior. I felt like this place really embodied the essence of what I wanted to write my album about. While I neither wanted to glorify or damn the behavior I had become witness to during this year, I simply wanted to tell the story.
The happy, brightly painted exterior of the hotel houses something much darker than what the eyes first see. This inspired me to make an album with an upbeat, almost happy tone with dark lyrics encoded within the music. I wanted the songs to mirror the bright exterior of the hotel that had a secret behind its walls.
Essentially, this album is about the masks we all wear during our daily lives and what really lies underneath when we finally choose to show our real selves.
Lauren Beeler
Lauren Beeler, Category: Artist, Albums: Dixie Plaza, Top Tracks: Like a Dog, Higher Living, It’s a Sign, I Wish, To Be Alone, Monthly Listeners: 28, Where People Listen: Cleveland, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Cologne
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