BREAKING
TRISHES TRISHES walks into Hey Hey, the trendy and ties and serving yourself. I developed my morality well-trafficked tea house in Echo Park, leading through a mixture of my parents, the community, her beautiful Shiba Inu, Curry. She comes bearand religions I was exposed to. Trinidad is made up ing gifts, which she presents with both hands, in of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu people. Everyone a tidy square box. was very loving toward each other, we celebrated The box’s lid features the same self-portrait all the holidays and I really liked religion in that as the cover of her debut album, The Id. Inside framework. In America, religion is tied to white suare five hand-drawn images and a hand-written premacy, which is why it’s so punitive. A big part of missive, plus a thank-you note. The detailed TRISHES was my exploration of morality. I realized I images are of herself, and of objects and body was terribly unhappy being selfish. The more conparts represented in the songs of The Id. The nected we are and the more we serve each other, box also includes a mini-canister of tiny colthe happier we are. That’s the reality of humanity.” ored pencils with a built-in sharpener, plus a But for a long time, TRISHES was angry. This square tin of gumballs, a reference to her canwas partially from her own deep internal wounds dy-themed video for “Instant Gratification.” The that she hadn’t worked through. But mainly it was tin has a QR code on it which, when scanned, BACKSTORY: A graduate of the Berklee College of Music whose an emotion projected onto her that, for a long time, multimedia output includes aural, verbal, performance, visual, she absorbed. “When a woman of color speaks the goes to a smooth stream of The Id. and moving-image art This thoughtfully curated gift collection is truth and it’s something uncomfortable that people representative of TRISHES at this point in time. FROM: Born in Boston, moved to Trinidad as a baby, then to San don’t want to hear, when we break that lens of exoBorn Trish Hosein, “TRISHES” is the name for Diego at age seven, now a resident of North Hollywood tification, it’s a lot easier to say we’re angry,” she says. her “project,” as she calls it, which is based in YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Her hyper-creative videos for “Anger is this idea that’s unfeminine as well. In a lot music but expressed through a number of me- “Instant Gratification” and “Big Sunglasses” and her inventive of ways, white supremacy would like femininity to diums including illustration, film, spoken word, video series of covers that range from Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” to be one in the same with submissiveness.” and performance art. The presentation of TR- Drake’s “Passionfruit” There’s a heady mixture of emotion and militanISHES began with her 2019 EP, Ego. It contin- NOW: Her first full-length album, The Id, and debut TED Talk both cy that comes with TRISHES’s live performances, ues with The Id and will conclude with a future dropped in late 2021, with the final record in her Freudian trilogy, which could come across as angry if they weren’t so album, Superego. The Freudian psychoanalytic engaging. Dressed in all-white with white streaks Superego, dropping soon throughline of the bodies of work is obvious, of paint on her face and an array of equipment on but to TRISHES, they’re about what it means to be human. stage, TRISHES is a singer, a poet, a dancer, a studio musician, and a recording engi“The id is associated with gratification, with fear and shame, and with internalized neer all at the same time. She records herself reciting spoken-word passages and makideas, especially anonymity,” she explains in between gentle tugs on Curry’s leash and ing improvised sounds while looping these recordings, triggering sounds, and singing murmured assurances in response to his fidgets. “When we don’t feel like people are along with interpretive and emotive movements. watching, or that we’re being held accountable, that anonymity can bring out our A live setting is the best representation of TRISHES’s multidisciplinary art, the individual comessential selves, and, in some cases, courage. It’s the same reason why people wore ponents of which come together for a wonderfully cohesive and greater-than-its-parts whole. tribal paint when they would go to war, or masks.” The other medium that especially lends itself to her work is video; with their high level of creativity This concept is best expressed on “Big Sunglasses,” which ties in with another one and originality, TRISHES’s clips are like award-winning art school short films and a great gateway of TRISHES’s obsessions, that of morality—how an individual determines what’s right to connecting with her vision. and wrong, how that ties in with identity, community, and accountability, and whethFor the final piece in her Freudian trilogy, Superego, TRISHES’s focus will be on er the self that is detached from those elements is the true self. She delves further connectivity. As she gets ready to take Curry for a calming walk around the neighborinto this on “Animal.” hood she says, “Superego is going to be a little more positive. What are the connec“We develop morality because we need to function within communities,” says tions between people? That’s what I miss the most about traveling: not seeing the TRISHES. “As we evolved, morality became this tightrope between serving communi- differences, but the similarities.” BY LILY MOAYERI – PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA OCAMPO FLOOD 40