Hip-hop, future-funk, and dream-pop influences blend to create a densely layered lamentation of our nation’s gun violence crisis in Jason & the Rex’s debut single “Bullets Are Flying”.
Directed by Samantha Silver and produced by Tag Brum, “Bullets Are Flying” was inspired from his emotions over the Parkland shootings and features vibrant horns, a melancholy piano lead, strange-sounding synths, and a reverb-washed chorus create a dense soundscape, as Jason unfurls a pensive, sometimes manic flow that expresses the convoluted public discourse surrounding the gun violence epidemic in the US.
Carefully crafting his art to inspire activism, Jason layered hidden meanings and messages with each aspect of both the video and the track. The dancers movements, what’s on the TV screens, and sounds and atmospheric layers created from voice samples of common gun-violence soundbites are just a few examples of the extreme intuitiveness that went into the creation of this video to convey the emotive message of gun violence.
Drawing from his love for socially-conscious 90’s hip-hop artists like De La Soul and Common with the synth-heavy, lush soundscapes of psychedelic dream-pop artists like the Cocteau Twins, the Cranberries, and Tame Impala, “Bullets Are Flying” will appear on Jason’s forthcoming EP Synthesizer or Variations of: An Endemic Cycle, which will explore and expand the theme of living in the mass shooting generation.
Jason pledges to donate 100% of royalties to March For Our Lives. “Bullets Are Flying” is available for streaming and download on all major platforms. “Whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I feel like I enter a purgatory space full of contradictions,” says Jason. “Whereas I’m painfully empathetic towards the victims, I also worry about my own hypocrisy when I demand change and wonder how much I contribute to the problem.
” In “Bullets Are Flying”, the diverse instrumentation and mix of soundbite samples act as a soundtrack to Jason’s state of mind after the Parkland shooting. Describing his process: “I wanted to capture what I was experiencing at the time. I was listening to all this vibrant future funk and melancholy dream-pop. The sounds inspired me as an artist, but I was also inundated with all kinds of noise from every corner of the gun violence debate. I felt a mix of frustration, optimism, and empowerment from the survivors who started March For Our Lives.”
Rather than take a hardline stance, Jason raps about the ambivalence of demanding drastic change in US gun culture, while personally enjoying the neo-con tendencies of action movies. He doesn’t deny the allure of pistol-wielding icons like Charles Bronson, who inspire a profoundly independent, vigilant style of justice and self-defense that permeates US gun culture.
Though not stated explicitly, he does appear to direct his anger at the gun lobby, but he also confesses to the vanity intertwined with speaking out publicly, whether it’s releasing a song to gain fans, or sharing news articles and commentary to get likes and reposts, or displaying grief to show solidarity. Everyone is an actor to some extent. Where is the line between genuine care and social posturing? Does this line exist? And does it matter?
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Contact: Dawn Jones, Pressed PR
