For the time being, Detroit synth-punk agitators ADULT. have no interest courting harmony in a world that’s becoming increasingly discordant. Such is the premise of “I Am Nothing”, a taut, thorny banger rooted in Detroit techno and proto-industrial.
“After having an advanced listen of this song with a friend, she commented that we [ADULT.] have a healthy acceptance of destruction,” the band comments. “Our feelings regarding current music and creative output is this; we are not interested to hear happy fucking albums during a global pandemic. Some may wish to escape the inescapable, but we don’t. Let’s get to the core of the human condition and break it down. The meaning of ‘nothing’ in the context of this song is not in regards to worthlessness, but of being lodged into something we can not understand and yet somehow accept it, or not accept it. We are collectively living in liminality, and personally, we are more content currently to be in a state of nothingness.”
“I Am Nothing” offers another glimpse of ADULT.’s new upcoming LP Becoming Undone, which will be released February 25th on Dais Records – with vinyl copies going on sale on March 11. Previous single “Fools (Are We…)” was definitely more light-hearted in its makeup, a playful pantomime of bad benders and feverish bouts of sickness.
Though ADULT. are tricksters at heart, Becoming Undone actually came from an emotionally taxing real-life experience: co-founder Nicola Kuperus’s father passed away during the pandemic, so she and partner Adam Lee Miller had to be co-hospice caretakers for an extended period of time. This difficult period spawned illuminated thoughts of our collective mortality and inherent fragility, summarizing “the joy of having a body, but also the drudgery of having one.”
Listen to “I Am Nothing” below, or find the song on various streaming services.
Preorder Becoming Undone here. Follow ADULT. on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
