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Male Tears: stories

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Myers’s project – letting air out of ideas of what it means to be a man – often requires his protagonists to be killed or maimed, but not always. A story in which a male music journalist interviews a feted female folk singer highlights the journalist’s self-absorption by telling the story from both points of view so that we see how little he understands his subject (there’s probably an element of self-deprecation here - Myers was once a staff writer for Melody Maker). Eight new cuts that alternate rarefied synthwave (Krypt), dark eurodance (Slay) with goth techno-pop (Sleep 4Ever) and pounding electro-industrial (I Expire) to create something we may call New Romantic Body Music. It's no wonder we wanted the scene’s top studio, La Distilleria, run by Maurizio Baggio, to master this for the most bombastic outcome. Here comes something unapologetically goth. Male Tears is the dark electro group consisting of vocalist, James Edward and synthesist, Frank Shark. Hailing from Los Angeles, what began as a solo project re-established itself as a duo in 2021, simultaneously moving from the breezy sounds of the first self-titled album to darker realms with their sophomore Trauma Club.

The group of individuals that I surround myself with may act distinctive or striking, but they are ultimately just like everyone else. Model Citizen" has been described as neo-industrial, with heavy influences from artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.Two very different worlds collide and lead to minimalist dark wave deconstructions that are equal parts brutal and erotic. This duality is reflected in the name Skemer, which next to its obvious English meaning of 'intriguer' also stands for ‘dusk’ in Mathieu’s native tongue West-Flemish, as well as in their debut album. The chorus of the song, "I will eat your soul, your pretty, pretty soul" could be interpreted as a metaphorical way of saying that the person has lost their identity in the pursuit of fitting in with the crowd. The line "I was born in a limousine, it was an ugly feeling young" could suggest that the person was brought up in privilege, but it hasn't brought them happiness, rather they feel trapped in the materialistic world they were born into. The song ends with the repeated "I'll eat your soul" line, emphasizing that the person has become consumed by their own desire to be accepted by society. Written in the cold winters of Buffalo, you can almost feel the harshness of the weather affecting the sounds that propagate from these grooves. Icy and frostbitten but somehow still relevantly civic and urban.

I desire to continue to present myself in a way that is deemed attractive or admirable, even if it ultimately means sacrificing authenticity or happiness. From an early age, James Edward fostered a love for 80’s electronic pop music, due to his father being a predominant DJ in the LA nightclub scene. Over the years this love grew, until he formed Male Tears as an artistic outlet. You may think it takes quite a bit of nonchalance to do so but the L.A. duo easily succeeds at this. Akin to their aesthetics, they may seem spooky from the outside but their approach is nothing stuffy. Quite the contrary, everything regarding Male Tears is a celebration of life’s most bizzare shades, driven by some of the best dark humor you’ll find around. So Dance with me, my dear, on a dancefloor of bones and skulls / The music is our master The devil controls our souls. Rounded out by Cooper Leardi (guitar / synths) and Tyler Kershaw (guitar / synth), House of Harm have amassed an impressive following as something of a best kept secret among their growing fanbase, leading to sold out shows on both coasts by the power of word of mouth alone.Overall, the song is an introspective portrayal of the dark side of popularity and conformity, and the internal struggles faced by those who are willing to do anything to fit in. How to talk about the problems faced by men in the right way ? Without becoming misogynist, without blaming women and also being against the problems faced by women ? You can tell some skinheads are involved here because the outcome is so tidy and neat, without losing one inch of atmosphere or enchantment.

The book’s epigraph comes from Germaine Greer: “The tragedy of machismo is that a man is never quite man enough.” In these stories, that’s a state of affairs to be observed from afar, worthy of satire or karmic comeuppance (all those accidents). Steve Hollyman’s brash new novel, Lairies, takes a different approach. Not for him the comforts of irony; instead, he gets uncomfortably cosy with his violent and bigoted cast to deliver an insider critique of masculine bravado. Turning Blue (2016) was described as a "folk crime" novel, and praised by writers including Val McDermid. A sequel These Darkening Days followed in 2017.The music video for "Model Citizen" features unsettling footage of Maasai tribesmen and other indigenous people juxtaposed with footage of modern-day cityscapes. Naturally drawing inspiration from the Californian goth tradition ( 45 Grave, Christian Death) and the Canadian post-industrial brood ( Skinny Puppy, FLA), as well as the best UK synthpop ( Depeche Mode, The Human League), Male Tears emphasizes the most glamourous, and at once, gruesome aspects of the whole gothic subculture, bringing everything to the next level, resulting in a contemporary and cutting edge album. He is an award-winning author and journalist whose recent novel Cuddy (2023) won the Goldsmiths Prize. The artist Marcella Dvsi has been compared to other experimental musicians like Björk and FKA Twigs. A new video of Hit Me has been released by Male Tears. The video was created by Male Tears, and VHS aesthetics were created by visual artist CBTV.HAZETV. It is a fairly straightforward, no-nonsense performance clip, but the time-bending analogue treatment gives it the nostalgic feel of watching MTV in 1988 on a scrambled cable channel or wonky satellite dish.

The name MALE TEARS is a reference to the idea that men should not cry, and how this societal expectation can lead to harmful behaviours. His novel Beastings (2014) won the Portico Prize For Literature, was the recipient of the Northern Writers’ Award and longlisted for a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award 2015. Widely acclaimed, it featured on several end of year lists, and was chosen by Robert Macfarlane in The Big Issue as one of his books of 2014. Recipient of the Roger Deakin Award and first published by Bluemoose Books, Myers' novel The Gallows Pole was published to acclaim in 2017 and was winner of the Walter Scott Prize 2018 - the world's largest prize for historical fiction. It has been published in the US by Third Man Books and in 2023 was adapted by director Shane Meadows for the BBC/A24.

My biggest concern is to maintain an image of success and beauty even as I inevitably fail or succumb to my shortcomings. Based in Los Angeles, Edward describes Male Tears as “the result of a goth’s love affair with 1980’s new wave” and a pop experiment flirting with themes of morbidity, sexuality and self-destruction.

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