Brooklyn, NY nuke wave artist Monograms (lead by multi-instrumentalist Ian Jacobs) has revealed the video for his single “Hi Low“, off his upcoming album ‘A Fine Commitment‘, out June 16th via PaperCup Music.
“Hi Low” find Monograms taking on the archetypal Factory Records sound of its 1980s height and stamping his own mark on it. The track reflects on the ups and downs that life can throw at you and how we come to deal with them mentally. Inspired by a period of Monograms’ life when mental health struggles would dominate his day-to-day.
Monograms shares:
“I put on a pretty clean outer shell most of the time, cause of the way I’m wired but those that know me best know that it’s a roller coaster at times. I don’t think it’s uncommon for people during that creative process but for me there’s definitely another mental health and semi-destructive element at work. Years ago I used to fight this rocky feeling a bit more, so the story of the song really is built so that the verses are me trying to gain my footing, trying to find some answers to stop the storm waves from crashing, fighting it… and the chorus is just dumb blind acceptance. ‘This is me. This is probably a lot of people. Plus, up and down is probably better than not moving at all.”
Pre-order A fine Commintment here and watch the clip for Hi Low below.
A Fine Commitment, produced with the assistance of Ben Rice, promises a thrilling meltdown of sounds and boundaries. Documenting a journey of personal mental health struggles over the two year period in which it was made and how the music he was making offered him a road to recovery, Ian says:
“Let’s just say I went through a time in my life while making this record where I almost lost myself and my mind a couple times. The process of this album felt like a fork in the road where I finally started letting go a bit of my past and trying to predict my future. The tension wasn’t directly about the creative process but that was often the trigger. It’s a long story but I’ve been facing those divots in my life a lot more lately and trying to be more real about it cause it’s not something I think about often… but I truly did almost completely lose myself in the span of time while making this record more than once. But I’m still here, still living, still dreaming.”
