Photo courtesy of Jon Del Real

While the world was spending most of 2020 indoors, Molly Kirschenbaum was planning their first solo album set to be released under the moniker Goblynne, titled Hot! :( . From this planning came a character: a Western American beauty, blonde, blue-eyed, a little tortured, a little haunted… and as this character was progressing, so were Kirschenbaum’s ideas.

A one-person show of the same title was performed in 2021 as a test-run for the songs that had been written. While a lot of that material did not end up on the final album, it was their first step back into performing and getting the album to the finish line.

“I used that show to play with a lot of the material I wanted to explore on the album: the performance of femininity, desire, pretending to be someone you're not, discovering that both the people you desire and the people you wish you could be, are, to some extent, part of you,” Kirschenbaum said. “Some stuff in that show, in my opinion, worked, and some totally didn't, but that solo show process became the foundation for the final album.”

Despite all the progress they had made with the album and this character, a major setback happened in 2021. One day, their hard drive fell off their desk and the entire project was lost. In retrospect, Kirschenbaum sees it as a blessing in disguise. Yes, they had to rebuild the entire album from scratch. This time around, however, they had a more clear picture of what they wanted it to be. This time around they created something more refined.

Anothering challenging aspect of creating Hot! :( was diving into the themes of gender and vanity.

“It can be really exhausting to think this much about those themes without driving yourself to a really...fascinating....place, mentally,” they said. “But it's also been really rewarding to find the humor in that and learn to take some of it less seriously. I've learned I don't have to force myself to know exactly what or who I am at every moment.”

Kirschenbaum jokes that they hope the album heals every listener completely, but truly wants these songs to translate as an uplifting message.

“I honestly just hope it maybe encourages people to dress up and, like, wear something they wouldn't normally wear, or something they're afraid to wear, and chase whatever makes them feel beautiful, desirable and at home in their body. And hot,” they said. “It's that simple. And if you are a rando homophobe or something with problems and you stumbled upon this album, like, by accident, or something, maybe it will encourage you to not fucking hate trans and queer people for no reason.”

While a live show as Goblynne involves wigs, scaly gloves and a fake meditation app, their debut album channels everything they love about performance. They created a pop landscape for themselves that allows a safe space to be truly unique.