What would you do if you were living the dream and your career was halted by a global catastrophe, you suddenly found yourself a single parent and your existing anxiety & depression boiled over to a point where you were left bed ridden? The past couple of years have been hard for a lot of us but the infamously cheerful producer Paces (Mikey Perry) has had quite the run. “I was struggling to do simple things like go to a grocery store or drive my car without having anxiety attacks. I was spiraling every day and despite exercising regularly, meditating, doing yoga, going to therapy every week, journaling, etc, it just kept getting worse.” The tendency to think that if we just do all the right things it’ll get better, is strong with so many of us. “Eventually my physical health declined and for a few months I barely had the strength to cook for myself. I had to sleep through most of the days and I wasn’t able to look after my son (who is my whole world). I was at rock bottom. At that point, I relented and started taking antidepressants. They helped with the anxiety a lot and gave me a foothold to start climbing out of the pit I was in.”
Mikey then found headroom to start creating again. An experimental but authentic combination of sounds started to emerge. The future bass/hyper-pop sound we’ve loved Paces for started merging with Mikey’s lifelong passion for raw and emotive punk music. “The songwriting turned out to be a positive goal to focus on, so I kept chipping away at it and eventually ended up with a handful of new songs, out of this really crap part of my life.” Another barrier to fall ment that for the first time Mikey put his own voice into the microphone. ”I’m not a singer, I’ve never been a singer, but I sing on these songs because they’re too personal to have had anyone else do it.” A new freedom came with starting from scratch. No momentum, a new sound and his own label to release under. “It’s been super cathartic. At the moment I kind of feel like nothing matters, which has been a refreshing headspace to make music from.” The first single to emerge is the stirring Adrift. A skate-punk bass riff sets the pace before warped electronic drums open up for the chorus. The track ultimately, apexes in a big rock moment when the drum kit kicks in and the mosh pit vibes take over. Armed with his new “hyper-punk’ sound and a renewed energy Paces has found reasons to make noise again: “I’m sad, so now I sing.”
Adrift is out everywhere today!
Commercial Link: https://bfan.link/adrift
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