Nashville Singer-songwriter Tristen Shares Self-Sabotage Anthem “Complex”

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Tristen will be releasing her highly-anticipated album Aquatic Flowers on June 4th via Mama Bird Recordings. Her captivating blend of indie rock, folk, pop, and Southern twang come out in a dream-pop capsule on her new single “Complex”.

“The song ‘Complex’ casts an eye on someone trapped in a cycle of self-sabotage,” says Tristen. “It’s about someone who actually feels comfortable repeating the same patterns and making the same mistakes because — even though they’re painful, even though they’re clearly unhealthy — they are, more importantly, familiar. The song asks: how many of us blackout, stumbling forth, blindly operated by the unconscious, the complexes that keep us attracted to our own familiar downfall?”

The dreary topic of self-destructive behaviour becomes a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as Tristen’s upbeat and warm lo-fi indie rock sound keeps the facade of positivity.

The new music video, which features a collage of images, videos, and clips of exercising, embodies the concept of escapism often involved in the process of self-sabotage. Inspired by the desire for routine and positive emotions during the pandemic, Tristen elaborates on the accompanying visual:

“Complex’ was written in a moment of reckoning, the realization that what I am saying and doing is defeating what I want; it’s a song about wrestling with yourself. Although we can be highly skilled at avoiding these moments of retrospect and shame, for many of us, the pandemic completely eliminated the distractions we can use to keep us away from ourselves, leaving many of us stuck between the same few walls, stuck in our own heads. We are hamsters running inside a metal wheel, trying to keep the monsters at bay. I just kept seeing a group of women stressercizing feverishly, even aggressively — attempting to calm the voices in their heads, trying to keep moving, grasping for feel-good chemicals, hoping to please the inner painter of the shadow–as a cool image that would mark the desperation of making the same mistakes over and over again.”

Watch the music video below and pre-save Aquatic Flowers here.