Boy Destroy has today shared his new single and video ‘You Don’t Want Me When I’m Sober’ – out now via independent label Loyalty Obsession.
‘You Don’t Want Me When I’m Sober’ juxtaposes vulnerable lyricism with an infectious layering of pop sensibilities, commanding trap beats and punk guitar hooks – proving the Swedish emo alt pop prodigy as a true force to be reckoned with in alternative music.
About the track Boy Destroy says “There is a certain type of person I’ve met many times during my dark periods. Sometimes just by looking into the mirror… someone who counts the seven mortal sins on the tips of their fingers and feels no remorse causing pain. This is for them. We all wanted to destroy some part of ourselves. I dug myself down a hole I didn’t think I was going to get out of, I tried to disappear completely. But when I turned away from the path of self medication, it felt like I had betrayed some sort of code. The code of the living dead perhaps.”
Shot on 16mm film in and around a semi-abandoned mansion on the small island Storholmen just outside Stockholm, the video for ‘You Don’t Want Me When I’m Sober’ is an abstract visualization of Boy Destroy’s dark past dealing with addiction, portraying the collision between his distorted reality and society’s prejudice of him and his place in it.
Speaking further about the filming he continues “From my experience, art dealing with pain has a price. That price is blood and metamorphosis. It leaves an imprint. Shooting this video made a lasting impression on me. Nowell Englund, the director, had a very clear vision of what he wanted to say and brought out the best in me as a performer. It felt very unveiling getting into the specific states required to film the scenes. It was a little bit like reliving the past but getting to make different choices.”
“The sentimental, organic look of analogue film not only helped create this window into Boy Destroy’s past, but also acted as the more affectionate contrast to the story’s darkness.” adds the video’s director Nowell Englund.
Boy Destroy is making a name for himself with his trailblazing approach to alternative music. With just three singles under his belt he’s already secured support from BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders who after several plays made debut single ‘Warpaint’ his Tune of the Week saying “Boy Destroy really has a handle on big time pop music in 2020 with that real strong trap beat that glides over the top of the very lonely flux grunge guitar line. The lyrics are just stunning.” Rock Sound described the single as “a display of raw creativity and beautiful darkness that promises great things to come’”, and Alternative Press included him in their ‘50 New Artists You Need To Hear’ column, alongside further support from Upset Magazine, Gigwise and Bring The Noise. He also recently covered ‘1979’ by Smashing Pumpkins, and ‘Vampire’ by Dominic Fike, showcasing the impressive expanse of his musical repertoire.
‘You Don’t Want Me When I’m Sober’ is taken from Boy Destroy’s forthcoming ‘Warpaint EP’ due Spring 2021, produced by We know nothing. Boy Destroy describes the EP “as a collection of stories from my sometimes troubled life. It’s about our time. It’s about human beings. Isolated like islands, bound together by a sick longing for connection. Self destruction and redemption in the digital age”, and a visual mixtape of some of the EP tracks featured can be viewed here.