Following the release of his new track 'Agnostic About You', we caught up with artist Gerald Slevin to find out more about the songs he loves and why. Check out his selection below as well as his brand new track!
1. Gerald Slevin - It's Your World ('Til it's Over)
I feel a little goofy choosing my own video for this, but it was animated by my friend Raf Bonilla who I really feel is a drastically overlooked artist, and I try to call attention to his work whenever I can. He animated it by hand in a claymation/stop-motion style, which takes a kind of dedication that I really admire. His attention to detail and sense of humor come through so well, and his color choices and character designs just fit so perfectly with the song. Now, whenever I hear it, I think of his animation, and how lucky I am to have worked with him on it.
2. REV WYN - "Endless Summer"
Rev is a self-described “desert synth” artist out of Tucson AZ, and is also a good friend of mine from my Brooklyn days. He moved to Tucson AZ when I moved to Upstate NY and he’s been just killing it out there, recording and releasing super weird and compelling music and playing amazingly fun shows. I like how his deliberately homemade VHS style gives me the feeling that I found an old, unlabeled tape in an abandoned house, popped in a VCR, and uncovered something inexplicably odd.
3. Grace Jones - Love Is The Drug
Grace Jones never ceases to awe and inspire me. In my view, she is the consummate artist and the perfect example of how the best artists are the ones who are brave enough to be utterly themselves. Like so much of her work, this video blends her interest in conceptual and modern visual art with her radical and larger than life persona. The song is from my favorite period of hers, known as the Compass Point album trilogy, where she recorded with production duo Sly and Robbie in the Bahamas and created an incredible synthesis of new wave, funk, reggae, punk, and avant-garde high art.
4. Remi Wolf - Photo ID
I think she’s just all around awesome. An amazing singer and creator, a truly unique artist and just a lot of fun without taking herself too seriously. All of her videos are great, but this is the one that first turned me onto her music. It’s got a very unsettling quality to the animation that goes with the catchy yet slightly psychedelic quality of the song. At one point there are hundreds of creepy android Remis and it feels like the metaverse just broke and we’re trapped in it forever.
5. IDLES - COLOSSUS
If you haven’t boarded the IDLES train, do it now. This video is the perfect introduction. It’s at once surreal, subversive, beautiful, and horrifying. Just like their music. I’m not usually drawn to hard rock these days, but I was in a punk band in high school, and something about their take on that genre just clicked for me. Like all the best punk, they use the artform as a way of throwing rocks at the establishment at a time when it seems like a lot of people have forgotten how important it is for artists to do that.
Listen to 'Agnostic About You':
Comments