London experimental-pop musician Jerskin Fendrix has shared a video for his pensive new avant-pop single Oh God.
The video was self-directed with assistance from acclaimed cinematographer James Westlake, and sees Jerskin in only a Stranger Things t-shirt, Hello Kitty eye patch and his underwear. The video perfectly matches Jerskin’s vulnerable and exposed lyrics placing him against a black backdrop with a slow strobe light, which accelerates as his self-reflective monologue and stripped back synth lines build towards an explosive climax. Watch the video clip via YouTube below.
Speaking about the single, Jerskin said: “I have never written a song more quickly than Oh God. After writing the first three songs on ’Winterreise’, I suddenly thought about The Trout.
The Trout is a song by Schubert, with words from a poem by Christian Schubart. Schubert only sets the first three verses of Schubart’s poem to music, which in their sum only tell a story about a man catching a fish. The fourth verse, which Schubert omits, reflects on the tale’s allegory, in
which (translated), Schubart states “Girls, watch seducers with the fishing rod! Otherwise, you will bleed too late”
If the first nine songs of my ’Winterreise’ are Schubert’s, then Oh God, its last track, is Schubart’s The Trout. Here every fuck-up is brought into focus, every past fuck-up and every fuck-up to come. It is a man going to confession after writing an album fat with melodramatic self pity. It is an operatic admission of wrongdoing. It was written in one eve”
The single is lifted from Jerskin’s anticipated debut album ‘Winterreise’, which is due out 17th April via untitled recs.
The announcement also follows the recent release of Jerskin’s hyperactive sardonic pop belter A Star Is Born and the conversely warped first single Black Hair, which was accompanied by haunting visuals made by Liam Noonan, the artist behind the custom visuals at London clubbing institution FOLD.
Jerskin Fendrix has been carving himself a special place on the London scene. Starting out by releasing a trilogy of video singles that have already received high praise from a vast array of major publications. In 2018, he composed the score to an experimental absurdist opera ‘UBU’ at the V&A (receiving 4 stars from the Guardian), before embarking on a UK tour and joint single release with rock phenomenon Black Midi.
As a classically trained pianist and violinist, Fendrix’s practice and ambition extends far beyond the realm of traditional songwriting. His avant-garde take on electronic pop cannibalises and appropriates elements of pop culture at the service of very personal songs. All of his material has an emotionally playful sarcastic take on the tropes of modern life, whilst also delving inwards. Most of all, it can’t be easily pigeonholed.
‘Winterreise’ is the fruit of Jerskin Fendrix’s first 3 years as an artist. His debut album spans an improbable range of music, skimming UK Grime, Bruce Springsteen, Sibelius, Joanna Newsom, PC Music and ‘50s Doo-Wop without alighting. Jerskin’s ‘Winterreise,’ named after Schubert’s Winterreise, conveys the same message: if you spend too long writing a breakup album, something weird will happen. The album will contain 10 tracks and run for 43 minutes.
