Synth-Pop Artist Gerald Slevin Faces His True Enemy On New Single “Violence in the Subscript”

After struggling to live in New York City as a musician working odd creative jobs, Gerald Slevin came to harsh realization that his music career had taken a backseat to the burnout lifestyle he had fallen into. “I didn’t like the work I was doing, and my heart wasn’t in it”, Slevin explains. “It wasn’t quite a nervous breakdown, but I was subverting my artistic abilities and goals in order to fulfill someone else’s vision, which eventually made me miserable. It was all supposed to be in service of supporting my ability to make music, but it was so time-consuming that it took over everything. I blamed the people around me, and irrationally turned them into enemies in my mind.”

On his new single “Violence in The Subscript”, he explores that realization and comes to blow with the real obstacle holding him back: “The only real enemy was me. The fact that all I really wanted to be doing was working on music wasn’t anyone else’s fault or problem. It took moving upstate, building a simpler life around teaching and making music, and a pandemic for me to see that.”

Through synth-heavy melodies and hypnotizing groove, Slevin showcases his abilities as both a songwriter and producer, finding playful moments to create a 3-dimensional feel to the upbeat anthem. Slevin multi-tracked all the instruments and vocals himself in his studio in Ithaca, NY, where he now produces and mixes all of his music. Often describing this process as a kind of therapy, Slevin remarks, “One of the great things about songwriting is you can vent in a healthy way by turning your feelings into a song, which ends up being a good way of moving forward.”

Listen to the single below: