“Fate” Boy Harsher

Boy Harsher has shared a new video ahead of their forthcoming release Careful, out February 1st via Nude Club. The video for “Fate,” was directed by Bryan M. Ferguson. Careful was primarily written at home in Massachusetts, with just a handful of synthesizers and a laptop. For Muller a minimal set up is paramount to his process. Boy Harsher mixed the album in Italy with Maurizio Baggio of La Distilleria Studio who had a big hand in finalizing the sound.

Boy Harsher on “Fate”:

“This song is about how there’s no amount of running that will prevent you from your life. You are raw and beat-down, yet you will continue to behave the same way – Fate is your own trouble, a magnetic force that’s stuck on you forever.”

Boy Harsher originated in 2014, Jae Matthews and Augustus Muller started to experiment with sound, video, and text. At that time “Careful” was meant as a warning: the cautionary understanding of love. The duo felt as though they were disappearing within one another. But, if Boy Harsher’s first two releases narrated the pain and desperation that follows after something goes awry, then this LP, Careful, describes what loves gives you: fear and joy, tenderness and pain. For Boy Harsher, Careful attempts to detail the enveloping trauma of loss combined with the fantasy of escape (a reckless abandon).

Careful splits its time between songs that study the trauma embedded within loss and the compulsion to flee. The track “The Look You Gave (Jerry)” is named after Matthews’ deceased step-father, who passed right before her mother was diagnosed with dementia. The song mourns Jerry, as described through her mother’s perspective: “I close my eyes and I can almost see: The look u gave / when u / you ran from me.” For Matthews the fiercest pain in relation to her mother’s disease is her mother’s loss of comfort, a grasping at an image that slowly fades away. Death for Matthews and her mother has become synonymous with abandonment. Not unlike the pain of losing her father, Matthews conceives the hollowness where intimacy once was – the melancholy of disappearance.

The message of “careful” also plays out as universal warning in these Boy Harsher’s tracks — do not be fooled, loss is inevitable. “Fate” describes the willing lover who knows that there is nothing their love can do to keep their partner. “Hi Hi / Oh No / In spite of me / you always go. Forget the crying / tempt the pain / hi hi / gone again.” In Careful affection vanishes as quickly as it arrives. To understand love, you must accept that it dissolves, leaving sorrow and disappointment in its wake. Yet, Careful reconciles the deterioration of love with the gilded expectation of escapism.

Boy Harsher
Careful
Nude Club
February 1, 2019

1. Keep Driving
2. Face the Fire
3. Fate
4. LA
5. Come Closer
6. The Look You Gave (Jerry)
7. Tears
8. Crush
9. Lost
10. Careful

Boy Harsher
Live Dates

02-01 New Haven, CT – State House *
02-02 Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere *
02-03 Philadephia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s *
02-04 Richmond, VA – The Camel *
02-05 Raleigh, NC – Kings *
02-06 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery *
02-07 Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class *
02-08 Chicago, IL – The Empty Bottle * SOLD OUT
02-09 Minneapolis, MN – Loring *
02-10 Chicago, IL – The Empty Bottle * 2nd SHOW ADDED
02-11 Detroit, MI – El Club *
02-12 Toronto, ON – The Garrison *
02-13 Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz *
02-21 Hamburg, DE – Turmzimmer #
02-22 Amsterdam, NL – Melkweg #
02-23 St. Maló , FR – La Route Du Rock
02-24 Bristol, UK – Lanes #
02-25 Leeds, UK – Wharf Chambers #
02-26 Manchester, UK – Soup Kitchen #
02-27 London, UK – Heaven # NEW VENUE
02-28 Lille, FR – L’Aeronef #
03-01 Nancy, FR – L’Autre Canal #
03-02 Paris, FR – Badaboum #
03-03 Lyon, FR – Le Sucre
03-04 Heidelberg, DE – Karlstorbahnhof #
03-05 Berlin, DE – Berghain # SOLD OUT
03-06 Leipzig, DE – UT Connewitz #
03-07 Augsburg, DE – Kantine #
03-08 Cologne, DE – Artheater #
03-09 Brussels, BE – Rotondes #
03-10 Berlin, DE – Urban Spree # SOLD OUT
03-20 San Diego, CA – The Casbah §
03-21 Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater §
03-22 Las Vegas, NV – Beauty Bar §
03-23 Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge §
03-24 Tucson, AZ – Club Congress §
03-25 El Paso, TX – Love Buzz §
03-27 Dallas, TX – Deep Ellum Art Co §
03-28 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger §
03-29 Austin, TX – Barracuda §
03-30 Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall §
03-31 New Orleans, LA – Santos %
04-02 Gainesville, FL – The Atlantic %
04-03 Miami, FL – Gramps %
04-04 Orlando, FL – Stonewall %
04-05 Tampa, FL – Crowbar %
04-06 Atlanta, GA – 529 %
04-07 Nashville, TN – DRKMTTR %
04-08 St Louis, MO – The Ready Room %
04-09 Wichita, KS – Barleycorn’s %
04-10 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge %
04-12 Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom %
04-13 Seattle, WA – Highline %
04-14 Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre %
04-17 San Francisco, CA – The Independent %
04-18 Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst Atrium %
04-20 Tijuana, MX – Black Box %