Look – telling me to tone it down has always been the fastest way to make me turn the volume up. I spent enough time editing myself for people who were perfectly comfortable being exhausting at full volume, and that arrangement was bullshit. Piper Connolly runs with that instinct on ‘Unapologetic’, an alt-rock rush built around the moment you stop treating your personality like a group project. The song comes in bright and punchy, with enough bite to make her refusal to shrink herself feel lived-in and personal. She sounds like she has heard the complaints and filed them somewhere deeply irrelevant. If you need me quieter and easier, babe, you can go date a fucking screensaver.
She puts the messy shit on the table before anybody else gets the chance. “Little reckless / Over jealous / Can’t help what I adore / Love drunk foolish / Kinda clueless / What are you waiting for?” She lays the flaws out herself, which takes all the fun away from anybody hoping to weaponize them later. She knows the file. I’m the same way! I can be a pain in the ass and own that knowledge without turning it into a public apology. Self-awareness is useful and making yourself easier to handle is boring as hell.
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And once the mess is out in the open, she has no interest in apologizing for it. “No I’m not sorry, I’m unapologetic / I won’t change, I don’t regret it / So keep it copacetic / Oh no, you don’t get it / So baby please don’t sweat it no more / Already said it / Not sorry, unapologetic.” She has decided who she is, and everybody else can catch up on their own time. That line about keeping it copacetic almost makes me laugh because she sounds fully prepared to continue living while everybody bothered by it works through their feelings. If being myself ruins your afternoon, that sounds like scheduling shit on your end.
And this is where the bullshit really shows itself. “Too loud too quiet / I’m all out defiant / It feels like I’m living a lie / Too hard to fake it / Perfection’s overrated / Everything will be alright.” The target keeps moving because people always have an opinion about how much of yourself they can comfortably handle. Her answer is to stop auditioning for a version of herself that would bore her anyway. I support walking out of the audition. Whoever is still mad can take the clipboard and get the hell out of my dressing room.
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So let’s talk about Piper for a minute. Piper Connolly is a Phoenix-raised, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who has been performing live since age five with acting also part of her background. She grew up in a musical family and developed a taste that stretches from Queen to Avril Lavigne which explains some of the old-school rock nerve inside her pop instincts. Still only 15 she has already shared stages with Stewart Copeland and Robby Krieger. Her current run through ‘beautiful life’ and ‘body bag’ leads into the six-song she’s too much! EP due September 25. That is a hell of a résumé for an artist still writing about growing up while she is actually in the middle of it. (thenational.co.za)
By the end, that whole tone-it-down request sounds even dumber than it did at the beginning. Piper spends ‘Unapologetic’ showing how much easier self-acceptance feels once you stop putting yourself up for committee review. She can be messy and still be worth knowing. I said what I said, and if you think I’m too much, you are welcome to go find less. My ass is staying right here.
