Calm down, I promise I'm not trying to be an emo rapper lol.
Around the time that B and I became lab partners, because we both came into our first lab of the semester late, I also met Eben Ejdne. Eben might've been doing his experiments on the same bench as us or something, but in any case, we were in the same chemical biology course, and we began to interact. Eben and B are, were? complete opposites - B was your typical straight white Australian boy whose most primary concerns were beer and pussy. I carried our experiments, and when it came to writing our individual reports, the questions B would Facebook message me about it made it clear that he had had no actual idea what we were doing in the lab. Still, I helped him, both because I am a pathetic people pleaser and also because he happened to be hot. He bought me a burrito as thanks, once, which I guess is nice of him? Eben, by contrast, was a quiet, interestingly fashionable, sulky-looking Art student who, like me, happened to be doubling the degree with a Science one.
I don't remember much of our initial interactions, to be honest. Eben and I have one of those interestingly new-age (I guess) relationships where we haven't actually spent a whole lot of one-on-one time together, but, because we see that we have similar interests and modes of expression online, are digitally bonded by mutual respect and affection. At least, I hope it's mutual lol.
Last I heard from B was that he was on Love Island Australia. Eben lives in Melbourne and is a multidisciplinary artist. One of his disciplines is music, specifically, EDM. I'm not adept enough in the genre to know what sub-genre he falls into, but he is a DJ, and goes by Ekzander in that scene.
Anyway, maybe a year ago now, Eben was in need of a voice - he had written lyrics to a song, and recorded the vocals himself, but found his accent to be too Australian for his liking and not useful for what he wanted to achieve with the song. Now, if you are part of the small, small subsection of people who read this blog but have never heard my voice because you don't know me personally - I have a weird accent. It's sort of American, sort of Australian, and, nowadays, sometimes fleetingly English. (Yes, I am, to my horror, beginning to drop my Ts.) This makes little to no sense, given that I grew up in Singapore to Italian Australian parents and have been in America for maybe a collective month in my lifetime. People, upon learning that I grew up in Singapore, go "ah, you've got an international school accent." But I didn't go to international school. I get Canadian a lot, and sometimes even South African. I can't go through a single shift at work without at least one table, when I am bringing them the bill, going, "So, my wife and I were just debating. Where are you from?" Not that I mind. It just happens a lot, and I don't have a satisfying answer for those who ask. The point of this is that I have an unusual accent, so I offered my services to Eben, and he accepted.
So, without further ado, here is Overexposure:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6i2tdHukUqmSaPACIra5NR?si=bc1ba80129694456
I don't have the patience to look up how to add a Spotify widget to a blogger post, if it's even possible, so I'm afraid an ugly url will have to suffice. If you know me in IRL, you may recognise my voice, albeit in its pitched-down and chopped-up form.
Here is a remix of it, on Soundcloud:
I don't think I have to explain the main concept of the song - it's pretty apparent that it's contrasting the despair you can feel in the middle of a club or rave with the collective joy it's meant to represent, and that this contrast mirrors the contrast in the irony of this club song clearly challenging the club scene of today. Something I've come to experience myself in the months since I nervously recorded the vocals for this song.
Apparently Fred again's song "Delilah (pull me out of this)" is also written about this dissonance. But, let it be known, Ekzander did it first.
If you enjoyed the song, I would highly encourage you to explore his Spotify and Soundcloud profiles.
Here is a performance of his:
And here he is in interview:
https://www.woroni.com.au/news/an-interview-with-anu-artist-eben-ejdne/
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