Lorde Says Her Synesthesia (Ability To Hear Colors) Helped Her Write Her Latest Album

Mashable- Who knew “Green Light” was so literal? Unless you’re a loyal fan, you might not realise that New Zealand musician and young genius Lorde has synesthesia. But she does. And it informs her songwriting more than you might think. The 20-year-old Ella Yelich-O’Connor has sound-to-colour synesthesia, otherwise known as chromesthesia. That means for notes and sounds that she hears, corresponding colours appear in front of her eyes. She’s spoken about it before, but a new profile in the NY Times last week has shed new light on the condition and how it effects her songwriting. “From the moment I start something, I can see the finished song, even if it’s far-off and foggy,” she told the publication while speaking how the neurological condition manifests for her. Explaining that songwriting means colour-correction, she describes arranging chords and rhythms in a way that brings her vision into focus. “It’s about getting the actual thing to sound like what I’ve been seeing,” she said.

Bulllllllllshit. Such bullshit. We talked about this synesthesia shit on Drive Time the other day. It’s fucking bullshit. Synesthesia isn’t real. These asshole artists claim they can hear colors so they can pretend they’re better than everyone else. I see right through it. Anyone who buys that these people can hear colors are absolute sheep. Mostly because I don’t think you can even test for this. Anybody can just say they hear colors all willy nilly. These people who get famous all of sudden just say “Oh yeah by the way, I can hear colors” like fucking superheroes. Sure ya can. I’ll tell you what, you never see a homeless guy on the street with a sign that reads Will Identify Sounds As Colors For Food. It’s strictly an “artist” thing. Also, another piece of the bullshit pie is that Stevie Wonder claimed to have synesthesia. Excuse me? That dude was blind from birth so how does he even know what colors are? Check mate. If I’m any of these other artists claiming to have synesthesia I hate that Stevie jumped on board. That really hurts the rep of synesthesia being a real thing (which it isn’t).