EKKSTACY doesn’t need to conceal anymore with new album distress

EKKSTACY as soon as couldn’t assist however conceal. Along with his earlier album, 2021’s NEGATIVE, his voice was muffled and secondary. Within the photographs surrounding the discharge, often rendered in black and white, locks of hair fell in entrance of his eyes. He even calls his debut extra just like a compilation, fairly than a correct album. However now, the 20-year-old artist — who’s at present sitting backstage at Reeperbahn Competition in Hamburg, Germany repping a Title Combat tee and brief blond hair — is coming into his personal.

“A lot of the songs I made that had been on NEGATIVE, I might probably not give a fuck about, to be sincere. However now I’m stoked. Now, I’m proud of these items. In case you had [talked to] me final 12 months, I’d most likely be telling you ways my music sucks and the way I’m gonna be quitting quickly,” he says with amusing. That’s coming from an artist who creates heart-on-sleeve, ’80s-flecked indie rock constructed for the SoundCloud period, whose single “i stroll this earth all on my own” racked up over 2 million streams on the platform.

Learn extra: Why Wednesday Addams will all the time be a cult-favorite goth icon

Past any doubt, his newest album, distress, is a present of development for the breakout rock star. Throughout its 10 tracks, EKKSTACY makes stylistic decisions that painting a transparent maturation, each within the influences that he pulls from (The Drums, Misfits, Christian Demise) and the quantity of confidence he shows on document. Regardless that EKKSTACY means that he “simply acquired fortunate,” you may inform it’s greater than that. It’s his enthusiasm for his craft and all of the music that he wasn’t alive to witness.

Whereas NEGATIVE felt markedly uncooked and darkish, distress leans even additional into the realms of post-punk and goth rock. The tracks are draped in an ashen melancholy that talk on dread, demise and love, channeling the graveyard stomp of Pleasure Division and Bauhaus. However whereas EKKSTACY embraces the darkness, his new music casts a contagious spell. There’s an unquestionable pop sense that enlivens the tracks, with EKKSTACY projecting his voice greater than ever in hooks that’ll make you lose your self within the music. Demise looms, however there’s all the time time to bop.

“That’s what Misfits did for punk,” he factors out. “They had been making punk, however in probably the most pop approach you can do it due to the melodies.”

EKKSTACY additionally reveled in familiarity by tapping producer MANGET$U, a longtime collaborator who he labored with on NEGATIVE. For 2 weeks, the pair toiled away in his Vancouver storage recording the whole lot themselves on a makeshift setup, which principally consisted of numerous pedals, three guitars and a damaged pc. “Every part sucked, however that’s as a result of I like making [music] on trashy setups. I might go get a bunch of loopy shit, however I don’t need to. Takes away from it, I believe,” he says.

Discovering the tone that colours “christian demise,” a track titled after the ’80s goth-rock band of the identical identify, marked the turning level. Over a distorted guitar line that sounds prefer it’s careening towards a wall, EKKSTACY wails about how he desires to finish all of it. A day or two into the recording course of, MANGET$U was messing round with the pedal knobs till he landed on a specific mixture. As quickly as EKKSTACY heard the tone, which is a mix of two totally different pedals, he “misplaced [his] shit.” It’s a minimize that gave them construction and a template to observe. The duo then went to work making a “entire album primarily based round that one feeling.” 

The method of creating distress, he admits, made him fall in love with music once more. Previous to creating the document, the recording artist didn’t just like the songs he was creating and began to really feel dejected, regardless of solely starting his profession a couple of years in the past. “I’m an extremist,” he says. “When one thing’s not good, it’s horrible, and when one thing’s good, it’s superb. So I most likely thought issues had been worse than they had been, however I’m stoked [now].”

[Photo by Jordan Knight]

It’s that duality that makes his music so fascinating. EKKSTACY balances blunt, revelatory lyrics overtop an uptempo edge. The subject material ranges anyplace from cursed romance (“i want you had been fairly on the within”) and considering his personal fame (“i simply need to conceal my face”) to unhappiness and self-destruction (“​i need to sleep for 1000 years”). All of it coalesces right into a swirl of agony, propulsion and melodicism that prospers reside. He even admits that “christian demise” is an excessive track “as a result of the hook is so fucked up.”

“Everybody looks like that sooner or later, and it’s not [meant] to be taken so actually, both,” he muses. “Most individuals my age — when even the slightest factor goes unsuitable — they’re like, ‘Ah fuck, I wanna die.’ I’m not saying that’s what that track’s about, however lots of people are desensitized to principally the whole lot at this level.”

He’s spot on. In a world inundated by doom-scrolling, unbearable politics and basic ennui, it’s straightforward to present into apathy and tune out statements that will’ve turned heads a decade in the past. EKKSTACY, although, refuses to launch something however songs which might be utterly unfiltered.

“I don’t get stoked off different folks saying that the track’s good, and I actually don’t care when folks say my songs suck. [The music’s] the one factor I’m not insecure about anymore,” he says.

Going ahead, EKKSTACY is in no way letting go of the chaos. “The subsequent album is gonna be a shit present, which I’m excited for,” he says. The indie star is getting pulled right into a sound examine on the German competition, however earlier than he logs off, he reveals goals of collaborating with artists like Surf Curse and Joji (“I’m undoubtedly slightly bit in love with him,” he gushes, laughing). Plus, he plans on dipping even additional into his goth influences for the subsequent document, which might imply something from getting heavier on synth to performing a séance onstage. It’s the mark of an artist who’s come out of his shell, stepping boldly towards his future.