Daniel Briskin has made his EMI/PMR debut with the new single “Boy on the Lake,” a sparse, jarring and modestly beautiful miniature pop symphony. The North London-based producer/multi-instrumentalist/singer/songwriter recorded the song with Jamie Reynolds, a founding member of the Mercury Prize-winning band Klaxons.
Briskin – who is only 19 yet has had two self-released songs appear on New Music Friday playlists – wrote “Boy on the Lake” after watching Mean Creek, a 2004 cult film about a lakeside prank that spirals out of control. Attempting to empathize with the coming-of-age story’s antagonist, Briskin says he “saw someone feeling weird, remote and small, and it struck me that so much of human nature is based on a need for validation.”
That starting point led him to compose a meditation on isolation and redemption. He explains, “The last line of the song is ‘follow if you can,’ and with that the mood shifts. In the end, the song says: ‘I’ve been this person, but please come with me on this journey I’m trying to have.’ It’s about self-growth.”
The song is brought to life through an artwork collaboration with Joe Cruz, the white-hot visual artist who caught Briskin’s eye through his work for Jacquemus and Stüssy. The pair met last year and hit it off. Collaborating mainly via Zoom, the resulting images seen in the artwork and press photos blend Cruz’s layered, unconventional approach to portraiture with Briskin’s own reference points like Gummo, surrealist art and his favorite Italian Renaissance painting.
The stop motion video official, which was helmed by 22-year-old, Indiana-based director LONEWOLF (Trippie Redd, Lil Uzi Vert, Brent Faiyaz, Lil Yachty, A$AP Ferg), can be seen now below.
“Boy on the Lake” is from Briskin’s forthcoming mixtape, Forever Was A Feeling, also recorded with Jamie Reynolds. The work captures the claustrophobia and euphoria of late adolescence, mixing nostalgia with an overwhelming relief that the whole thing’s nearly over – all seen through the eyes of a realist who can’t help being a bit of a dreamer. The result is dark pop, with a glimmer of light never too far away.
Drawing on art, cinema and pop references spanning decades, Briskin has a unique vision that’s accessible, esoteric and, as millions of TikTok hits attest, effortlessly charismatic. His pair of self-produced, self-released 2018 singles – “Come With Me” and “Colder Homes” ft. Alista Marq – hit New Music Friday playlists and earned Briskin attention from tastemaker press. He’s your average messy-bedroomed 19-year-old and at the same time not – with his attention flitting from TikTok to Basquiat, from Frank Ocean to the Carpenters. He’s the quintessential modern popstar.