Atmospheric rock collective SOM – comprised of current and former members of Constants, Junius, and recent Grammy nominees Caspian – have released new single / video ‘Youth // Decay’.
Taken from their new EP, Awake, due out 12th March via Pelagic Records, watch the video for ‘Youth // Decay’ here: https://youtu.be/jK2krbI6Uj8
Will Benoit (vocals / guitars) commented on the track: “Before the first SOM record was done, Mike Repasch-Nieves (guitars) and I were both feeling creatively and musically adrift. We got together for a couple days, recording ambient guitar and synths over glitchy beats in an attempt to change things up. Two years later when Mike and Joel joined the band, I edited some of Mike’s demo parts from that session to form the main melodies in ‘Youth // Decay.’ I arranged the chords and vocals, and brought it to the group. During quarantine, we all passed the demo back and forth. Slowly, this minimal, sparse piece of music grew into a dynamic, crushing song that is also the first track we finished as a five-piece.”
On the video, Mike Repasch-Nieves (guitar) continues “Similarly, the video started as a short film that my friend and long-time colleague, director Adam Patch, had been working on. As soon as we finished the song, I knew it would be perfect for this, lyrically and thematically. We shared the song and footage with editor Samia Zaidi (who also directed our recent video for ‘Awake // Sedate’); she took it and really brought everything into focus. It was quite serendipitous how it all came together in this way.”
Watch previous single / video ‘Awake // Sedate’ here: https://youtu.be/RcwyLCipWdc
Combining two exclusive originals with remixes by beloved collaborators Holy Fawn, Hisself (Johnny Dang of O’Brother), U Dye (Marshall Gallagher of Teenage Wrist), and Giuseppe Capolupo (The Devil Wears Prada), the short collection is a triumph of self-described “heavy dream pop.” Its concise compositions balance the gritty riffs of Deftones with airy, Tame Impala-esque vocal lines, just as primed for rock radio success as they are for shoegaze-loving connoisseurs. “Our past projects were very exploratory,” explains drummer Duncan Rich. “With SOM, it’s a lot more focused. Creating in a pandemic has imposed limits – it’s a test of working within boundaries. How do we make something expansive, yet digestible and impactful?” The tracks are part of SOM’s ongoing mission to “leave this place better than we found it.”
Pre-order Awake here: https://somtheband.bandcamp.com/
SOM Online:
http://www.som.band
http://www.facebook.com/somtheband
http://twitter.com/somtheband
http://www.instagram.com/somtheband
Track listing:
1. Awake // Sedate
2. Youth // Decay
3. Awake // Sedate (Holy Fawn Remix)
4. Youth // Decay (hisself Remix)
5. Open Wounds (U DYE Remix)
6. Prayers (Giuseppe Capolupo Remix)
More information on SOM:
Duncan Rich co-founded SOM with frontman and former Constants colleague Will Benoit, as well as Adai founder and now-Caspian drummer Justin Forrest. While touring on The Fall in 2019, the band added guitarists Mike Repasch-Nieves and Joel M. Reynolds, both formerly of Junius and Driftoff. “We’ve always been a musical family,” Rich adds.
Repasch-Nieves continues, “Will and I started a label, Radar Recordings, in Boston during the early 2000s, which was an amazing time and place for music. It was very much a collective of like-minded artists, which grew as we all toured around the world together in the years to follow.” The alluring Awake is far from the five longtime friends’ only endeavour to create a better world around them. Despite being recorded in quarantine, the EP was mixed by Benoit at his own Radar Studio in Connecticut – New England’s first solar-powered recording facility. Repasch-Nieves and Reynolds, meanwhile, spent 2020 sustaining an urban farm in New York City, while Forrest distributed vegan food to Black Lives Matter activists in Denver through the Summer. Equally philanthropic is Rich, who now uses his production experience to host emotional fluency events for men. While many musicians lumbered in inactivity, SOM used the darkness of recent times to create and heal. Awake’s bliss is an insight not only into the kind of harmony the quintet seeks to cultivate in all facets of life, but also the exciting second full-length that looms on the horizon.
“SOM play the kind of somber, glimmering music that exudes a heavy fog of emotion and introspection around it.” – Kerrang!
“Perfect for laying in a pile of leaves while quietly pondering everywhere you went wrong in life.” – MetalSucks
SOM are:
Will Benoit – vocals, guitars
Justin Forrest – bass
Mike Repasch-Nieves – guitars
Joel M. Reynolds – guitars
Duncan Rich – drums