U.K. painter Issy Wood has released her introspective debut self-written/produced track and video “Cry / Fun” via Mark Ronson’s Zelig Records. “Cry / Fun” is the first track off her forthcoming EP, Cries Real Tears! set for release Dec. 4th.
“Issy Wood’s talent genuinely blows me away,” said Mark. “She writes, plays. programs, produces and performs every element of her music. The dark wit of her lyrics, the glitchy but always head-nod inducing beats, the earworm melodies, and harmonies that sound like the Andrews Sisters on ketamine—there are so many unique things about it. Maybe the thing it reminds me of most is when I first heard NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine, thinking to myself how can someone make despair and angst sound so, well, funky?—And also with that healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek ego-annihilation. It’s so good, so deep and just a small sliver of what’s coming. I’m extremely proud to release this debut EP of hers.”
Featuring a stop-frame animation laboratory animal with a ‘taste for pain,’ the music video for “Cry / Fun” was made by Issy’s fellow creative, Stuart Middleton. Together the song and video explore the idea of balancing pleasure with pain and the inner turmoil that comes from being both compelled and suffocated by the trap you find yourself within.
“Cry / Fun and this EP are an experiment in switching mediums,” said Issy. “Cry / Fun more or less gives itself away in the title – for me the track, and perhaps the EP in general, is my confessing to mistaking pain for pleasure, or a trap for freedom in relationships, including the one with myself. I’m hoping these songs can do for other people what visuals alone don’t always manage to do.”
“The line that stuck in my head initially was ‘I’ve got a taste for pain’ and how the protagonist of the song was aware of their emotional responses but remained detached from them,” said Stuart in regards to the creation of the video. “I wanted the character in the video to represent something with extremely limited agency, other than to play out the experiment.”
Issy comes from a fine artist background and gained initial recognition for her paintings. Her pieces have been featured in art galleries across the world. This new project is the result of her continuing to explore her artistry by using music and multimedia as an extension of her work.