The breeze in your hair as you drive down a desolate, dusty highway. The dirt clouds your vision; It burns, it lingers, yet you feel free – this is what Caressa embodies.

Will, Jade and Katalina encompass South Australian “tarot-rock” band *Caressa* who embrace the grit of ‘70s rock with a uniquely youthful and contemporary twist.

Their first release was in 2025; a soulful melody titled Blue. I sought to visually interpret its melancholia through impenetrable gothic visuals and style. When amalgamated it emulates a romantic essence; a worldview Mary Shelley could fathom if she was from the ‘70s and called Australia home.

“Wherever you go, you take yourself that’s not a lie” - Anthony Bourdain

Amongst an arid setting this becomes as apparent as ever. The land exists to serve the subject despite its all-consuming nature. Like black coffee, where the crème rises above, an amiable façade masks the substance beneath. But façades fade. What remains is truth. It breathes beneath the surface, breaking through in waves of emotion through form, colour, and sound. Shooting Caressa was an external showcase of interior darkness. The paradox of black is that within its darkness exists a rainbow of emotions. It has provided me with cathartic comfort, whilst representing a delegation of power buried inside a deep melancholic ache and brassy yearn.

The scenery was integral as it emulates the cinematography of the 1984 film Paris, Texas. It encapsulates loneliness in the great American landscape, although I diverge attention to the great Australian land we haunt. Amongst red dirt and patchy scrubs, I have found comfort in its embrace despite its ghastly past. This is Australian Gothic – the setting as personified misery; duality exists in its spirit and history, of light and darkness, of companionship and loneliness.

Paris, Texas (1984) — *Paris, Texas* (1984) Directed by Wim Wenders & Cinematography by Robby Müller

Styling as a Reclamation of Patriarchal Conventions

The imagery and intertextual allusions subvert the patriarchal conventions of the band’s roots in ‘70s rock. This includes visual inspirations from Western iconography which are often overburdened by male authority. Instead, the female members grace the forefront; Jade represents a feminine softness of beauty and rage. As the dancer figure she alludes to Stevie Nicks on the cover of Rumours. Katalina embodies the old western cowboy – like John Wayne, only bathed in black lace and a corset cinched with guns ablazing. Will matches and neutralises the women in his western attire. This balanced energy of sound, reminiscent of their soulful harmonies, as well as the play on gendered fashion forms acts like a tubular spirit level, a tool which maintains balance. Both feminine figures are graceful and fierce, forget the muse; they are goddesses of their own artistic conception.

Interpreting Blue

Jade holds the Three of Swords card close to her chest. Its message directly aligns with Blue signifying a wounded heart and misalignments. It is symbolic of catharsis which defines the mythology of Blue. It is a grieving incantation which both hurts and hugs. In discussion with the band members during shoot day it was apparent they view art, or specifically music, as not only a means of expression, yet a medium which acts as a vessel to pronounce a subconscious state of emotion (in this case sadness) into an external entity.

As Shelley writes of Frankenstein’s monster and expresses the harmful idea of playing God, artists like Caressa have harnessed the tools of the divine to conceive beauty. By externalising their experiences and feelings into the track they have fashioned a feeling of nostalgia for a time and place the audience has likely never experienced. They gift their heart to us through their tracks and performances, packaging an immense experience I anticipate to only intensify as Caressa flourish further into their own.