Turn on the news just about any day and it’s quickly evident why anxiety has seeped so deeply into our collective consciousness. Political turmoil. Civic unrest. Social and cultural norms uprooted and tossed to the wayside. Identity has always been tricky terrain to traverse, but with the world mired in constant upheaval, swinging tirelessly between catastrophe and controversy, maintaining our emotional balance and a keen sense of self can be a daunting task.
Best known as a filmmaker, David Tabor also has a talent for songwriting as evidenced by his new single “I’m Failing.” Although the song was started six years ago as part of rough jam Tabor conducted with local spellbinders Hymnal Moths, it wasn’t until he started work on his upcoming LP Karaoke Night that he was inspired to rework the music into a pulsing electronic confessional centered around the idea of an identity crisis. To further the song’s moody atmosphere, Tabor enlisted the help of his friend and colleague Samuel Laubscher (Of the Vine, Hot Air Henry) whose spectral guitar work helps darken the song’s already stark textures.
“When I started working on the demos that eventually became Karaoke Night, I came across the phone recording of the jam,” Tabor explains. “It fits so well within the sound that I was already developing for the album that I started reworking it. I reached out to Sam to add some apocalyptic sounding ambiances to the track. The song is one of the first tracks on the album and is kind of a post panic attack confession about the general feelings of failing to fit into any of the ideas of who you think you’re supposed to be.”
Opening with what initially feels like a sprightly synth bassline, the mood quickly flips as the tension between the song’s insistent rhythms and Tabor’s beleaguered vocals sets in. “I can’t explain / I might be dying,” he sings at the onset, before leading the listener down a dark rabbit hole of claustrophobic electronica and grim self-assessments. Throughout the track, Tabor successfully blurs the edges between artful experimentation and a kind of morose yet oddly kinetic dance music, with the end result feeling murky and menacing.
All of this makes for a compelling soundtrack to accompany the video’s austere black and white visuals. Combining newsreels and found footage with more personal clips, Tabor presents the viewer with the source material for his existential dread, which, in turn, shifts the focus of “I’m Failing” from inner monologue to a more pointed commentary on how external forces affect perceptions of self and our mental well-being.
“I didn’t have a ton of resources for the video,” Tabor admits. “So I just came up with the simple idea of stringing together old home movies and the significant political/social events that have impacted me in my life.”
Watch/listen above.
Karaoke Night will be released in early 2020.
More Info
Web: davidatabor.com
Instagram: @davidsneighbor