[Cover photo credit to Sasha Charoensub]
Public Domain is an ongoing music/art crossover collaboration by Grammy-nominated pianist and producer Ray Angry and multidisciplinary artist and writer Katherine McMahon. They previously released single “#AlcoholicBlues” and have now unleashed a new, star-studded track “#Toyland” featuring Ray Angry, Questlove, Black Thought, Marcus King, Pino Palladino, Liv Warfield and Ian Hendrickson Smith + Dave Guy of the Dap-Kings on horns.
The original “Toyland” is a song about childhood and loss of innocence, from the 1903 Christmas-themed operetta of the same name. Public Domain’s updated version has a Soul flare while “exploring the psychedelic & spiritual realm”. Presented alongside a new official video directed by Tatjana Krstevski, “#Toyland” explores the “sentiment that through spiritual self exploration and rebirth, you don’t necessarily return the same person”.
About Public Domain:
Each Public Domain release navigates themes of intellectual property as a commodity, appropriation, identity, and the illusion of newness. Throughout the project, Angry & McMahon expand upon expired copywritten material to sculpt a contemporary narrative about the cyclical nature of history while exploring generational shifts and the notion of ownership. Firmly rooted in the present, Public Domain synthesizes the existential dilemmas from the past, while critiquing the channels that are used to sell narratives & goods today.
