EMI/PR have released Daniel Briskin’s album-length mixtape, Forever Was A Feeling.
The nine-track set captures the claustrophobia and euphoria of late adolescence, mixing nostalgia with an overwhelming relief that the whole thing’s nearly over – all seen through the eyes of a realist who can’t help being a bit of a dreamer. The result is dark pop, with a glimmer of light never too far away. Briskin recorded the mixtape with Jamie Reynolds, a founding member of the Mercury Prize-winning band KLAXONS and JONAH. Creative collaborations across the project include Lonewolf (Trippie Redd, Brent Faiyaz, Lil Uzi Vert), Eddie Whelan (Gucci, Miu Miu) and Machine Operated (Bakarr, SG Lewis, Off-White). Download / stream Forever Was A Feeling HERE. View the trailer HERE.
Briskin shared a performance video of the closing track, “18,” earlier today. View the clip, which was shot at London’s Phonica Records, HERE. Look for the official “18” video to premiere soon. In the run-up to the release of Forever Was A Feeling, he released the opening track, “Boy on the Lake” – hailed as “a miniature masterpiece” by Clash Magazine – “Yellow” – praised as “a chunk of alt-pop perfection by The Line of Best Fit and heard on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 – and, most recently, the two-track single “Lost” / “Break.”
The 19-year-old North London artist teamed up with ICA filmmaker Rebecca Salvadori (Rave Trilogy) to create distinctive videos for “Lost” and “Break” that dive deep into the storytelling of each track. He talks about the inspiration for “Lost” in this clip.
For the artwork to accompany Forever Was A Feeling, Briskin turned to Joe Cruz, whose work for Jacquemus and Stüssy had caught his eye. The pair met last year and hit it off, creating a series of images that blend Cruz’s layered, unconventional approach to portraiture with Briskin’s own reference points like Gummo, surrealist art and his favorite Italian Renaissance paintings.
The painstakingly rendered vignettes of Forever Was A Feeling tell two stories: one about his relationship with his girlfriend, another about Briskin’s relationship with himself. Neither has been plain sailing. Along the way, reality and escapism are thrown together and we hear someone being pulled towards the choppy waters of late adolescence before emerging to find himself standing on the precipice of adulthood.
“I feel like I’m a totally different person having made it,” Daniel Briskin notes. “Part of that’s the nature of growing up but I’ve never felt as comfortable as I do now. It’s important to question what’s going on around you, but it’s also important that you get to a point where you just go: ‘Things won’t ever be perfect — sod it, let’s live.’ And I’m living it up right now.”
Track Listing – Forever Was A Feeling
1. Boy On The Lake
2. Yellow
3. Just Begun
4. Lost
5. Drift Away
6. Forever Was A Feeling
7. Break
8. Static
9. 18
