‘You Will Hear Thunder’ by Mensa Deathsquad | Album Premiere
Exclusive album premiere of ‘You Will Hear Thunder’ by electronic darkwave act Mensa Deathsquad, out April 12.
“Composing and producing I can do 365 days-a-year, but the emotional work that songwriting requires is too taxing to stay in that space all the time,” explains Brandon Phillips of Mensa Deathsquad. “When it’s time to write again, there is this excruciating period where you’re really just learning to walk again, and then one day – BOOM. You cast aside your crutches and walk under your own power.
“The bottom line for me with making ‘You Will Hear Thunder’ was that I wanted a fearless emotional inventory. All the music and lyrics needed to come from a place that was not in any fear of judgement. Like, “Oh God, people are going to judge me for using this super basic house beat” or “I’m a shitty musician for only using two chords here.” Or worse still, “This is too personal to sing about.” I had to drown my inner critic in the bathtub. I had to deconstruct decades of coping mechanisms that were related to my art but had gone toxic on me. I had to evict the voices of my old teachers and mentors from my head and take it on faith that whatever I was choosing, was chosen from a multitude. As far as what I hope people take away from it, I hope that there are a handful of nerds out there who, like me, love dark techno, post-punk and Nation Of Ulysses the same way I do and I hope they hear this and feel validated. I hope that non-nerds find a song or two that they can make a part of their lives for purposes of driving or working or making love and I hope that at least one other artist out there hears this and goes, “Wow. What a weird and broad palette this person has. I should buy them a coffee when they come through on tour.” Honestly, it’s hard to put myself in anyone else’s head but to me, I would hear this album and want to see the show, get some noodles and hit a trance party – and if YOU DO see the show, PLEASE INVITE ME to the “noodles and trance party” portion of the night!” Brandon Phillips
‘You Will Hear Thunder’ is the third Mensa Deathsquad album following ‘Cyclist’ and ‘Patient Zero’ and finds Phillips turning his search inward looking for the raw, vulnerable places that tell us truths we can feel in our blood. Each track is smart, sexy, and thought-provoking – optimized for late hours, raised pulses and sweaty catharsis.
“I knew there was a record inside me, chewing its way out but I was 100% certain that I didn’t want to just jump back on my usual creative merry-go-round,” explains Phillips. “2021 had been too fucking hard. Something about my process had gone toxic and I could feel that toxicity spreading.”
Pivoting from that process on ‘You Will Hear Thunder’, Phillips teamed up with musician Barb Morrison (Antony and The Johnsons, Blondie, Deborah Harry) as his music mentor, working together to lay bare the passionate catharsis of his new writing direction.
“I basically handed them my entire creative life in a shoebox like, ‘Okay, what’s worth keeping and what has to go?’ Barb just fearlessly took that entire shoebox and all its trauma, anxiety and conflict in one hand, held my hand in the other and we just walked forward and kept walking forward until there was an album.”
Walking forward on his new found legs, ‘You Will Hear Thunder’ sees Phillips then breaking into a full sprint through pulsing club kicks and throbbing waves of synthesizers, slamming headlong into jagged post-punk guitars and emotionally raw vocals about a desire so powerful that simply admitting its existence would set fire to heaven and earth.
“A thousand years ago when I stepped into a real studio for the very first time to make a record, Brett Gurewitz told me to make the record that was missing from my record collection. That is more or less, what’s happening on You Will Hear Thunder,” says Phillips.
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