Model/Actriz are dancing towards the light

When the quartet emerged from Brooklyn’s noisy underground, it was with a lament for personal suffering. Their 2023 debut Dogsbody weaved through a pervasive darkness, fusing menace with magnetism by pairing punishing instrumentation with a theatrical vulnerability. Now, with their sophomore album Pirouette, Model/Actriz spin towards the light: tighter, bolder, and unflinchingly direct. It trades murk for momentum, where catharsis comes not from collapse, but from the sweat and spectacle of full, fearless embodiment. With an undeniable pop throughline holding the 11-track collection together, their sound evolves with heavy glamour and an intrinsic hunger for self-possession.

It’s early afternoon when Cole Haden – the vocal virtuoso commanding the chaotic heart of Model/Actriz – joins our Zoom call a few days after the release of the new album. In a couple of hours, he’ll be hitting the stage in San Francisco for the first show of the band’s summer tour. For now, Haden basks in the warmth of the Santa Cruz sun, taking me along for a driftless walk through the gently blurred scenery and the origins of Pirouette.

Dogsbody laid important groundwork for Model/Actriz to find purpose as a band. Speaking about their debut, Haden explains: “It was about collecting all of the ideas that we had to make a thesis statement. Why does Model/Actriz need to exist? Why do the four of us need to make music together?” With this search for meaning resolved by the band fulfilling their goal of releasing a full-length album, Pirouette is a step towards the future described by Haden as “…not a direct continuation of Dogsbody, but a result.”

“With Pirouette, I look at where Model/Actriz can go, and where we can broaden outside of the things that we’ve done as a band for eight years,” Haden shares. “I think it also more closely reflects the ways in which our taste is broader than what’s captured on Dogsbody.”

The shift in sound palette is evident. Model/Actriz found themselves diving headfirst into the frenetic energy of club-pop instrumentation on the record, encapsulating a brighter place that’s built upon Haden’s visions. “In my mind, the club is taking place in the harsh light of day,” he muses, as glints of the pacific sun fittingly bounce against his sunglasses. “Like, on the Florabama shore or New Orleans, something that matched the kind of club that I wanted to go to myself.”

The sound isn’t the only thing that would change on the new album. While many of the emotional experiences that Haden contends with are consistent from Dogsbody to Pirouette, he recognises growth in his perspective. “I got to the point where I could be so gentle with myself,” he explains. “I could talk to my inner child and get to the root of where those insecurities in me come from. Not that they were governing my life anymore, but I could love those things out of me appropriately. Whereas on Dogsbody, I had to whip myself a little bit and crack that veneer open.”

Haden’s change in mindset seemed to play into his ability to find relief throughout the writing process. “On Dogsbody, I knew songs were right when I was crying,” he tells me. “On Pirouette, I knew songs were right when I was laughing. Not in a telling jokes way, but it felt like a divine sense of release when heaviness was taken off of my chest.”

Stepping outside of his comfort zone with the support of the band, Haden found a solid grip on the words for things that he previously couldn’t say. With the pressure of a debut out of the way, Model/Actriz could appreciate the process of expanding upon themselves and navigating what it means to be collaborative.

“It was a very meditative exercise of patience,” Haden tells me. “It was still a challenge, but we’ve learned a lot for whenever we write the next album. It’s not easy to be so trusting in the unknown and let other people lead. It’s harder than it looks to write a song completely democratically as a group; you have to trust each other unconditionally. And that takes practice.” Evidently, practice pays off. Haden speaks of the experience with a tranquil demeanour, praising the band’s ability to problem solve together and create something that they can all celebrate.

With much of Model/Actriz’s recognition coming from their compelling performances, it’s no surprise when Haden reveals that re-examining their live shows served as a starting point for writing the new album. “Musically, I started thinking about what we were missing. What do I want to add to the show?” he tells me. “What moments and emotional arcs would benefit the show we’ve already been playing for a long time with what we’d written for Dogsbody and a few of the earlier songs?” Endeavouring to replicate the vibrant, immersive environment of a high-powered dance floor, venturing into club music is Haden’s answer to what can make a Model/Actriz show more dynamic and true to the band’s identity. “By the end of a show, I want it to feel like the room is one organism.”

Exploring ways to maintain an impenetrable presence from studio to stage, Haden sought inspiration from his longstanding admiration of pop powerhouses, citing icons such as Britney Spears and Mariah Carey. “What I love about pop music and what I think the function of pop music is, or the purpose, is the whole persona of the artist outside of the art is just as important to be felt in a pop song,” he tells me. “To me, the best pop songs are the ones that can only be sung by the original artist. In writing these songs, I wanted to be so in them that even if someone else sung them, it would always feel like my presence was in the room.”

“That’s what I get from Britney, Mariah, and some Gwen Stefani songs. Their idiosyncrasies are so apparent in their music that it’s really their voice that does best. Other people can sing it just as well, but you always feel the ghost of them in their songs,” he continues. Whether Haden is feverishly recounting the memory of a childhood birthday that never came to fruition on the propulsive “Cinderella”, the slowly spoken agony of wishing to be seen on “Headlights”, or aspiring to the epitome of beauty on “Departures” (which he tells me posed the band with the challenge of creating real, laboured tension within a song), he is guided by his inner voice – which he hopes will stand the test of time.

Arguably, he’s on the right track. Pirouette maintains a staggering vulnerability that’s allowed Haden to take control of his identity in the most authentic manner when it comes to delivering a performance. “The person I am on stage is the person I wish I could be all the time, but we live in a society,” he laughs. “That’s just how I am. I don’t know where it comes from, the audacity of it all. But I’m a very romantic person, so those large gestures feel at home in my body. The person I am on stage is a pure, distilled version of my higher self.”

Baring his heart to beloved audiences, Haden has become comfortable with taking the lead to guide others into a similarly transcendent space. “I want to be a leader, and on stage, I feel that it’s my responsibility to lead the room to a better place. That’s a trait that I hope to further bring into my everyday life.” In doing so, he invites people to share in being vulnerable, creating safe spaces which are “…gracious enough to let you choose what your own adventure is.”

“Come as you are,” Haden asserts as he recounts the experience of reading social media comments surprised at his openness. “The album is decidedly more Queer this time, just in the lyrics I was writing,” he tells me. “I’ve seen tweets saying, ‘I didn’t know Cole Haden was a fruitcake.’ Yes, I always have been.”

“But that’s why this is really important to me. Just thinking about the persecution of trans people in the US, I want our shows to be another place where they can come and feel respite from the hatefulness that is so undeserved.”

Drawing upon the daring flair of pop music and the connection that comes with placing personal stake in a body of work, Model/Actriz are making purposeful statements with confidence. “With Pirouette, I was working through my coming out story and thinking about how I wish there were more examples of that,” Haden tells me. “So, I’m throwing this album into the ether to hopefully find its way so someone who may need it the way that I might have needed it at that point.”

Throughout Haden’s reflections, it becomes clear that Pirouette is a turning point, a declaration of resilience and self-empowerment that requires no further notes to understand. His willingness to acclimatise to the chill of his most exposed moments has given the band a path to grow both musically and as individuals carving out spaces for others – all with the aim of inspiring healing and overcoming self-doubt. If there’s any one goal for the record, it’s to serve as a reminder that everyone’s story deserves to be told.

Settling down from his scenic stroll and weighing in on his journey as a person and an artist, Haden shares the central message of Pirouette: “You need to trust that you are enough,” he affirms. With this record, Model/Actriz have proven just that – speaking to the power of transformation not just for themselves, but for everyone who listens and feels seen in the process.