#esfp aesthetic

Jung Music Perspective #1

Kirin J. Callinan’s “Victoria M.”

Kirin J. Callinan is not only one of the most exciting artists around right now, he is a breath of fresh air. His music is deeply informed by established pop/EDM artists, and his sound is clearly inspired by other big acts around, but he doesn’t get trapped in the overly sincere, saccharine side of it. His new album “Bravado” is, simultaneously, an incredibly artful rejection of good taste and a powerful musical statement by the freaky Australian.

Victoria M. is from his first solo record “Embracism”, which is much more personal and heavy than his newest record, which is why I have chosen “Victoria M.” as the first song to analyze using typology and my own personal observations. I hope you enjoy!

Kirin J. Callinan is a powerful ESFP performer (Se-Fi-Te-Ni) at heart. He shows himself and his music off with an oozing confidence that draws you in immediately. Everything he does is like a challenge to your senses - and he clearly knows how to evoke different emotions from you in his music and his appearance. Look no further than his albums covers. His first cover was him seemingly attempting to rip his own face off, his second is him naked and peeing on his own face, probably as a commentary on his decision to consciously aim for a vulgar sound and expression.

Victoria M. is probably his most personal song. There are no filters in his lyrics, and he doesn’t try to undermine the serious subject matter by masking it behind silly instrumentation or by obscuring his voice at all. In fact he goes all out to make sure you listen to the words during the second verse when he strips the instrumentation down to its bare basics as he sings (”I’m in love with two/but I’ll never tell you”) after which the instrumentation kicks back in at full force.

The topic of the song is Kirin moving in with his partner while secretly being in love with another woman called Victoria. He seems resigned as he starts the song with the line “We’ll move into this new home”, almost as if he’s a bystander to this new development. Gulenko (socionics) poignantly wrote that ESFPs like meditating on sadness and are very sensitive to criticism from others because they are highly aware of staying true to themselves. Kirin seems to struggle with his need to make his situation work while having eyes for someone else. It would be tempting to go into the stereotype about ESFPs being flirty, but the earnestness in Kirin’s voice makes me believe that it goes much further than that.

“Victoria M.”, along with all of “Embracism”, seems to have the human experience as its main focal point. Listening to the album, I get the impression that Kirin is struggling with feelings of not fitting in with the rest of humanity. His Fi is questioning why he doesn’t fit in, and why no one else can see that life is superficial and impossible to navigate without getting hurt. In the bridge, Kirin sings “close your eyes and imagine/life without pieces or puzzles”. He’s asking us to visualize how great it would be if life didn’t have all the moral and ethical quandaries that we face as the animals that we are. Kirin feels out of control, trapped inside of a gross human body that he cannot control. In this song he’s singing about being in love with two, but society is telling us that it is not possible to be in love with two at the same time.

The video illustrates all of the points that I have made thus far. Kirin is putting on masks by playing several comical characters throughout the video with dreamlike backgrounds that mirror old soap operas – only to have it all stripped away at the end, where he is revealed to be naked, covered in sweat, covering his true face. He is trapped by this world in a situation that is hurting him immensely.

If you like Victoria M., please check out the whole album and his newest masterpiece “Bravado”. Thank you for reading along! Let me know if you liked this typology based song review!

Slytherin || Thunderbird || ESFP