– THE LINE OF BEST FIT
Handing the creative reins over to their friend Zac (@atzacfox) – Manchester alt-pop duo push baby today share the new video for their latest single ‘Cry / TALK ABOUT IT’.
Watch: https://youtu.be/Mk-TAn-Tp8E
”It’s the first ‘narrative’ visual we’ve done.” tells Jake Roche. “My mum watched it and said ‘Are you all on drugs? I don’t get it’. Which is totally understandable. But I think below the surface of the video being a dumb comedic personality driven bit of abstract content – Zac’s saying something. But despite Zac working so closely on push baby and helping us design our world as a whole, we don’t really discuss the intention, we just let him play.
For me personally and the way I interpret it, I think it reflects how human emotions are a commodity. Especially from our experience in the music industry. This idea that if you feel something, you can bottle it up and sell it to the masses, and potentially that feeling you felt at the beginning has got lost somewhere along the ‘production line’. But that’s what I got from it. I think I’ll just stick with my Mum’s quote though.”
push baby is the new project from Jake Roche and Charley Bagnall – best known for their work as pop-outfit Rixton. Unsatisfied with the image and sound they had become familiar for, the pair returned from a four year stagnant period in 2019 with the release of their debut push baby EP, ‘woah’.
A fresh start for the pair and a return to their North West homes find Jake and Charley reinvigorated and freshly inspired; veering away from their commercial pop roots and instead entering a whole new world of heavily textured alternative pop akin to the likes of Easy Life, Biig Piig and COIN.
Channeling the anxiety and hysteria of an episode of poor mental health via distorted vocals and richly layered electronic textures; new single ‘Cry/TALK ABOUT IT’ is the product of push baby’s collaboration with close friend Max Innes. Having spent the past few years working through various renditions to no avail, the pair handed production duties over to Innes who transformed the track into the fresh, dynamic pop cut we hear today.
Jake elaborates: “The song itself was originally written a few years ago and has been through many variations. We knew that we had evolved as artists from that very first pass of the record. However, It always felt like it was missing a darker side so we learnt to let go of any preconceived ideas we had and pulled in our producer friend Max Innes – who was so far removed from any version. He flipped it on his head and detuned the guitars, which naturally made me change the melody to something more pleading and desperate. We hard tuned and distorted parts of the vocal as I wanted to lean away from that clean pop vocal and explore a more left leaning approach; a feeling of hysteria and pandemonium.
It feels close to home. I wanted to convey what it’s like going through an ‘episode’ with their mental health and stability. This idea of moments of calm and peace and then lots of overbearing and uncomfortable voices. It’s unlistenable at times I think. But then again on the surface – it’s quite a rather simple structured pop song that if you stripped back – it could be a top 40 pop radio song. Something that I feel myself and Charley are toying with whilst consciously being aware of push baby’s identity. “
PUSH BABY – CRY / TALK ABOUT IT
THE NEW SINGLE – OUT NOW VIA AWAL
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