Noun (Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females) with Is She?

Screaming Females guitarist and celebrated visual artist Marissa Paternoster makes her long-overdue return to SPACE with her solo project, Noun.

Noun is the long-running solo project of Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females. What began as a home recording project in 2004 has turned into several full-length studio LPs, 7″ singles, and cassette releases. Past and present members include: Miranda Taylor (Hunchback, Black Wine, Ex-Maid), Andy Gibbs (Thou), Kate Wakefield (Lung), Angie Boylan (Cheeky, Freezing Cold, Sleater-Kinney), and Shanna Polley (Snakeskin), Mark Bronzino (Kontusion), Jarrett Dougherty (Screaming Females), Michael Abbate (Screaming Females), and Eric Bennett.

Marissa Paternoster began writing Peace Meter immediately after arriving home from a west coast tour cut short due to COVID. Alone in her deceased grandmother’s empty home, Paternoster sent the skeleton of a song to Andy Gibbs from the metal band THOU with the hopes that he might be able to extrapolate on the original idea. Andy sent his accompaniment back, and that process continued for the bulk of the first wave of quarantine.

As the songs developed, Paternoster decided to include two other musicians whom she admired: long time friend Shanna Polley of the NYC-based band Snakeskin on backup vocals, and the cellist Kate Wakefield from the Cincinnati-based band Lung. All parties recorded their parts within their respective homes. Once the songs seemed fully realized, they were mixed by Eric Bennett, one of Marissa’s oldest friends and closest collaborators, who was also quarantined at home alongside his mixing studio.

This LP is the final project of that collaboration, between four US states, a year of isolation, panic, and uncertainty – all the while never writing together in the flesh.

Is She? is the moniker under which Portland, ME based vocalist/guitarist/pianist Estelle Poole performs her solo music. Her music is layered, melodically nuanced, and heartfelt, touching on themes of nature, existentialism, love, heartache, sorrow, and joy.