Premiere: Sob Sister “Bangs on Fire”
For Caden Gray of Sob Sister, music is more than an artform. When asked what motivates him as an artist he told us that, “my goal is always to create something that is authentic to myself and would serve as my own unique legacy if I left the Earth tomorrow - whether anyone pays attention or not.” Sob Sister’s newest premiere gives its listener a glimpse into a world of his creation.
Sob Sister makes it clear. To him, “creating is what I do and who I am. I have always felt an urge to express myself, and songwriting and producing my music combines all the things I love to do in a hyper-creative medium.” While this newest premiere continues Sob’s commitment to heartfelt, autobiographical records; he also characterizes ”Bangs on Fire” differently from past records he’s made because its, “happy and hopeful whereas a lot of the other songs I’ve written about love (whatever that is), are more bittersweet.”
His vision for “Bangs on Fire” is one of melodramatic theatrics; calling upon the, “relatable and timeless feelings of love story beginning.” We see this theme, which at once is enduring and fleeting, portrayed in the video to “Bangs on Fire.” Two strangers, alone, experiencing and listening to a complicated world; decide to venture into the unknown by each other's side. Sob Sister describes the video to “Bangs on Fire” as, “a continuation of the video for the first single and title track off the album, “How I Do My Hair Now.” While ultimately he’d prefer, “the audience interprets it however is natural to them, [he states] that the video deals with identity and how complicated that can become when revealing yourself to another person.”
Sob Sister has reclaimed what success as an artist means to him from the music industry’s business-first mindset:
“early on in my career as an artist [I learned] that talent and hard work rarely equate to success...It was really when I began to make art for myself as a channel for my feelings that I was able to let go of the pressure to ‘succeed.’ I create and identify the meaning through my work.”
The ‘societal success’ Sob Sister refers to is one measured in likes, views, hollow praise and shallow criticisms. Motivated by an internal fight to find his own identity, Sob Sister is rewriting how his artistic accomplishments are measured. Judging his achievements by his own standards of expression, self exploration and song writing.
As for what the future holds, Sob told us that, “Having something to say keeps me going. Having creative projects to work on gets me out of bed in the morning and inspires me to improve my intellect and continue to fight to be myself. Hopefully in doing so I inspire others to do the same.”
A part of the chaos is proud to premiere the video for “Bangs on Fire” and you can find more Sob Sister here