We are massive fans of the work of Justin Stokes through his work with the band Wilding, admiring his ability to craft intelligent self-deprecating pop of the highest order. We are therefore honoured to bring you the debut single ‘This Is How It Hurts’ from his new project called Modern Ideas.
Modern Ideas explores a new synth pop universe, as Stokes eloquently explains:
Synthetic forms can be the most authentic way to express emotion. Something is revealed in the antithesis. Plastic dreams, electric romance, and machines humming with human desire. That’s my manifesto for Modern Ideas. Modern Ideas embraces contradiction: beauty and pain, melancholy and euphoria, romance and irony. I hope the listener can feel a calmness in that emotional ambiguity.
‘This Is How It Hurts’ certainly undeniably draws in influences such as Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, New Order, Human League and Depeche Mode with its throbbing synth instrumentation delivering pure pop vocals and melodies. The antithetical themes are at play – the coldness of the instrumentation still delivering something warm and inclusive. It’s dramatic, theatrical and cinematic. Stokes’s vocals are somewhat dispassionate and studied, yet create a point of distinction between the music and his yearning delivery and poetic lyrics:
This is how it hurts
I like you, do you like me
This is how it hurts, Emily
This is how it hurts
The bees in the apple
The morning light will tell you differently
This is how it hurts
This is 80s synth pop brought brilliantly into the 21 century and a true synthesis of styles:
‘This Is How It Hurts’ is out tomorrow here but you can get it now exclusively through the link above. I can’t wait to hear more from this project.
Feature Photograph: Lee Hooper
Art work: Justin Stokes
