Known for making anthemic electronic pop songs, today, Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist HANDSOME returns with a new single & video ‘Youth Disaster‘, via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control Records – the first single from her forthcoming second EP dropping this year.
HANDSOME is as much a movement as it is a name. Relishing the freedom of gender fluidity and embracing the beauty in androgyny, you come for the dance floor bangers and stay for the big feels.
The No Hat No Play EP (released in 2019) explored identity and empowerment, themes which continue to be integral parts of her creative pieces. The accompanying videos to her songs have always carried messages of inclusivity and gender expression. For HANDSOME, themes of darkness and light juxtapose and dance around each other, a poignant reminder of the queer experience of coming out.
‘Youth Disaster’ is a moody bop, layered with vocal samples and inspired by the reactive Japanese fashion trend “Yami Kawaii” (‘sick cute’) that sees younger generations express struggles with depression and mental illness in a grotesque yet colourful way. HANDSOME explains: “‘Youth Disaster’ explores the darker side of ourselves. The inner demons that keep our joys, our energy and our spark at bay”.
The accompanying film clip, continues HANDSOME’s themes of togetherness, introducing us to a group of friends who hold their gaze on the camera as if to challenge the viewer, getting to the heart of a ‘sad youth’ generation and the monsters we can become through social media monotony. Self-expression through body and skin that we see more and more everyday in the hopes we finally find out what will make us feel whole again.
