“My House” by Pvris, Wednesday, October 16, 2024

When the five-piece metalcore band Pvris entered the studio to record their debut album, they radically changed their sound. Today, lead singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen, known as Lynn Gunn, is the only remaining group member. Pvris’ debut 2014 White Noise incorporates pop and electronic elements into a mostly rock sound. The band formed in Lowell, Massachusetts and lead singer Gunn has had a lifelong fascination with the supernatural, which she partly credits to the geography around her. The band’s second single, “My House” uses the setting of a spooky house as a metaphor for a person who won’t leave the speaker in peace. 

I HEARD YOU DOWN THE HALL. One of the most common fears is the feeling of being watched by a stranger. It’s a particularly eerie feeling when at home. Thinking of one’s most intimate moments stolen by glances or words uttered in secret overheard can drive a person to madness. It’s a story that ends up on the local news or the plot of a horror movie, and the metaphor Lynn Gunn explores in the song “My House.” The song builds on the lure of the haunted houses of New England, a point of fascination for Gunn. Lowell, Massachusetts, alone has several rumored haunted locations from The Worthen House Cafe, a pub frequented by Edgar Allen Poe and Jack Kerouac and known for its mysterious footsteps and strange noises to the Lowell Cemetary, known for its strange lights and noises, these places boast of ghosts from America’s colonial period to the present day. Lowell is close to other rumored haunted places like Amytiville and Salam. The black and white music video for “My House” is a short horror film with ghosts, candles, and flying objects, all with an unnerving effect of color washing in front of the video as if the music video is found footage of a haunting.

YOU'RE AT MY BEDROOM DOOR. While “My House” could be about a literal haunted house, Pvris’s Lynn Gunn compares the imagery to the feeling of taking control of one’s life. The demons of toxic relationships that bring out the worst in us--addictions, low self-esteem, lethargy--take our focus off of our goals. The house is a metaphor for one’s life. A house can be overrun by guests invited or uninvited but one often has the power to expel those unwanted guests. The song is an attempted exorcism of all the negative energy left by abusive individuals. Getting back control is paramount, and “My House” is a powerful metaphor for that moment when one realizes that he or she has the power to change.