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Music

Gothic Tropic's Tune "Stronger" Is Tight Like Your Favorite Ass-Hugging 501s

LA-based Cecilia Della Peruti cut her teeth as a session player for the likes of Charli XCX and BØRNS but under the guise Gothic Tropic she's killing it all on her own.

Photo by Ryan Aylsworth

It was a little over a year ago that we described Gothic Tropic as Ariel the mermaid if she starred in My So-Called Life. That was in for the video for "Underwater Games"—a song we likened to Warpaint at their most narcotized. Below is the premiere of her new song " Stronger" which is a bound and a fawn-like leap away from where Gothic Tropic, a.k.a Cecilia Della Peruti, was last year. Having cut her teeth as a session player for Charli XCX and BØRNS, the LA-based singer still values the importance of an absolutely killer bass line pushed front and center, but on "Stronger" the production is cleaner and clearer, a song that's fingerclicky cool, with a pinch of 60s shimmy and a pipette full of 80s power pop. It's very top down, blow your hair back, foot to the floor as the magic hour dips to night.

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But although the music inspires escapism, it's actually a feminine anthem of bold self-assertion.

"It was the last song I wrote, tying up the album," explains Della Peruti. "It all spilled out immediately, and aggressively, referencing what it's like to be a woman in a creative industry. I'm tired of walking on egg shells to spare someone else or an entity the embarrassment and shame of being in the wrong… My impulses were always to play dumb to unprofessional, insulting, and vulgar behavior as a courtesy to the offender. Now, I'm starting to require respect and decency.

"This song celebrates that, and urges other tiny baby girls, young girls, young women, old women, grandmas, friggin' your mom, and essentially anyone, gender, non-gender, dog, fairy, alien, anyone who's felt nervous about asserting one's self in these situations. It's OK. You can. And everyone will still love you, and think you're a god damn angel, because if you are, you are. No amount of reasonable and fair reactions will change that. Excited for you to hear this song, because it means a lot to me."​

Perfect for Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday! Oh, you get the picture.