BRISBANE’S Jarrod M. Mahon disappears down the rabbit hole of indiepop under the dashing name of Emerson Snowe; and he’s just released a first taster of an EP, out later this year.
The track’s entitled “Frankenstein”, it’s a rather lovely slice of breezy indie, leaning out of the Chills nexus towards 1968; and you can hear it below.
Emerson says: “Frankenstein was the last track written in this soon-to-be-released collection of songs. I wrote it in 30 minutes after a friend listened to a batch of my music and said that it had given them life.”
At least, it’s breezy on the surface; there’s a little acid paranoia brewing in there lyrically. The song opens with the line,”Well, I felt as though I wasnʼt right in my head”, and our protagonist later admits: “Iʼve been trying to outrun everything – Iʼve been around.”
“I had become lost with myself and who I thought I was meant to be,” Emerson reveals.
“Once people in your life fall away and you’re left with yourself, you can be as self-aware as you want to be – but you’re gonna realise sooner or later you have no clue who you are.
“I had moved from one addiction onto another. This track, although it was written very fast, holds a lot of weight into who I was at that time. A time of self-isolation, not sleeping until midday the next day, and gripping onto any ego I thought I had at all.”
The song comes armed with a lovely and eerie papercut animation courtesy LA’s Joe Sams, in which Emerson stars as a skeleton who hides himself in makeshift flesh and skin. The pair’s serendipitous meeting is quite the story.
As soon as Emerson saw Joe at work at play, he knew they had to collaborate: “I was invited to a release party in the Hollywood Hills in LA. Later on in the evening a dude arrived holding two life sized handmade puppets – similar to the muppets from Sesame Street.
“I watched him place them down in chairs in the dining room, he placed a beer into one of the puppets hands and closed it shut. Whoever this cat was I knew I wanted to do something with him.
“His name was Joe and his animations and mind is not only the most sincere portrayal of an artist I had seen in a long time, but is inspirational and built on pure love for a craft.
“Later on, he told me that he had folders and scrapbooks full of disembodied corpses and really grotesque images that he wasn’t able to use in any of his previous projects. I’m so grateful to have met him and have something to show of this period in both of our lives.”
“Frankenstein” follows the release of Emerson Snowe’s debut EP, That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll. He’s just signed a European deal with Berlin indie Duchess Box Records – in the country he currently calls home.
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