|
Having grown up in the unusually sheltered environment of a church-turned-cult, Brooklyn based musician Jeremy Snyder has always found himself drawn to the harsh, dissonant music that was off limits during his formative years. In 2017, he and contemporary dancer and visual artist Bianca Abarca formed experimental rock band Pure Adult, who released their debut EP, Pure Adult I, in 2019.
Today, they have announced that their debut album, Pure Adult II, will be released on January 27th via FatCat Records. Alongside this exciting news, the duo has also shared new single ‘A Big Surprise’. Speaking about the song, Jeremy said:
“I took the meritocratic system of my cult-like church very seriously. There’s an inherent naivety when you’ve been raised in a nearly closed system and that naivety was enhanced by a neurological processing disorder that, for a long time, went unacknowledged. I tried very hard for decades to be the right thing, the man of god, a member of what they called “The Remnant”, and to really find some calling that fell in line with what they were telling me was god’s will. I was the one sheep except Jesus wasn’t leaving the ninety-nine to find me. It was psychologically treacherous and damaging, particularly because I did in fact know what I was “supposed to” be doing. I’m doing it now.”
After leaving the church in 2007, Jeremy began studying religion, philosophy and politics whilst working as a sound engineer. “I ended up touring with some small pop rock bands, while my studies brought me through an array of beliefs and a far left political worldview. While I’ve identified as a communist for almost 20 years now, I didn’t fully give up on religious belief until around 2010. A fundamental element to our belief system was this sort of unverifiable feeling that must be something and, because I’ve experienced that feeling, virtually nothing can make me deny it. And it’s comforting, in a world of quantifiable uncertainty, a guise of certainty,” he says.
In more recent years, Jeremy has become the engineer of choice to internationally acclaimed acts such as Mdou Moctar and IDLES, both of which are big fans of Pure Adult. IDLES lead singer Joe Talbot says of the bands forthcoming album:
“Pungent chaos that serves no pomp, instead it throws around dark innuendo like a rag doll to the cadence of fury and fucking. The best album I’ve heard in ages. The best band you haven’t seen. Go dig, it’s beautiful at its worst.”
At the centre of Pure Adult’s music is the far left political ethos and DIY attitude Jeremy and Bianca share. In 2017, in their apartment, Jeremy began recording what would become their debut EP. “Whilst I was working on one of the tracks, Bianca had gotten the melody stuck in her head and was idly singing it out loud and it occurred to me that it might sound better with her voice on it. She crushed it in a single take and we then proceeded to add her into other songs on that recording. Similarly, I found her messing around with some synthesisers and it was so cool, we developed several pieces from her experimentation,” explains Jeremy.
Foregoing the clean polish of professional studios for various bedrooms, basements and empty restaurants along America’s East Coast, Pure Adult’s dedication to creating challenging yet captivating rock songs has earned them an ever expanding following. On their debut album, Snyder says:
“I wanted to create a surrealist experimental rock record with the sense of a single overarching narrative that didn't require a significant amount of patience to comprehend. It delves into themes of anti-capitalism, a jadedness about the potential for revolution and notes on growing up in a cult and accepting how that's directed my life.
A few major influences on the creation of this record are Joderowsky's films El Topo and Holy Mountain, the buildings of Antonio Gaudi and Carlo Scarpa as well as late period Scott Walker and This Heat records.”
Pure Adult II will be released digitally as well as on vinyl on January 27th via FatCat Records.
|
Single
