Julien Chang Shares New Single 'Snakebit'

Following the recent announcement of his sophomore album The Sale (out 11/4 on Transgressive Records) and the sharing of breezy and introspective first tracks "Marmalade" and "Time & Place", today multifaceted Baltimore musician Julien Chang has shared a third glimpse of his forthcoming record. New single "Snakebit" highlights Chang's layered, psych-tinged vocals and explores self-interrogation in the face of personal change.

Speaking on the track, Julien comments: "Snakebit emerged during a period of transformation. This was around the time I left Baltimore for University in the middle of New Jersey. The awkwardness of the transition and the discomfort of "growing pains" provoked in me a kind of creative agitation which found its outlet most decisively in this song. But the song is not only about changing. It is also about encountering change: in a reflective turn, encountering myself who is changing and then interrogating him, testing the limits of the "new me" before finding that I am really not so different."

"Snakebit" arrives alongside a mesmerizing animated video, created by multidisciplinary artist Vaughn Taormina and which draws inspiration from a myriad of influences; Jacques Tati's Playtime, '80s Japanese advertisements and the concept of doppelgangers. The video also includes cinematic opener "Snakebit Side", a jazzy kissing cousin to his original single.

Speaking on the video, Julien comments, "The song takes the form of a self-interrogation. I have changed, but how? and when? Why? This video simulates the fragmented, unfocused, and self-contradictory search for clues that one falls into trying to answer. Taken as a whole, the animations all seem to go together on a single string, but examined individually, it is clear that what binds them is not any logical order. In this sense, the video has the structure of a dream. While dreaming, a rapid sequence of freely-associated images and events seems to make perfect sense. It is only upon sober reflection the following morning that these images and events become absurd, random, and nonsensical."

Chang has also announced a run of fall US tour dates with labelmates Let's Eat Grandma. These dates are in addition to his appearance at Pitchfork London in November, as well as a few other UK dates. All dates are listed below.

Baltimore's Julien Chang writes music that tunnels toward a series of deeper truths, investigating everyday existentialism, love and life, art and the artist. Arriving in 2019 with his critically acclaimed album Jules, Chang set a precedent with his breezy, dreamy debut and is now exacting his focus on 2022 with forthcoming new music.

The prevailing theme of Julien Chang's second full-length album THE SALE is not reconciliation but rupture-between self and music, artwork and commodity, memory and reunion. Behind the lustrous sea-like surface of THE SALE, unseen (but not unfelt!) critical currents move.

They are moving your way and they are moving you. The name of this oceanographic phenomena is "estrangement" and it is the idea that marks the development of Chang's music from 2019's Jules. If Jules was "dreamy," THE SALE is the visionary dream-processing of love, late-capitalism, and problematics of artistic creation.

Recorded partially in his hometown of Baltimore and partially in his dorm room at Princeton, his new album The Sale is a homegrown effort with Chang playing all instruments, bar the odd exception of a few notable cameos from Baltimore locals, classmates and old friends.

Following his debut 'Jules' - which saw Chang earn praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Fader, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, DIY, Billboard alongside support from BBC Radio 1 & 6Music via Annie Mac Jack Saunders and Jamz Supernova - his new LP explores the discrepancy between two worlds, a struggle to get comfortable in either one of them, and ultimately an artistic fascination with this very struggle.

A statement of intent from an artist who promises to be an important rising voice of our times, his new album The Sale will be released on November 4th on limited edition vinyl, CD and digital.

Watch the new music video here:

LIVE DATES

11/1/2022 - Washington DC @ Union Stage*

11/2/2022- Philadelphia PA @ The Foundry*

11/4/2022 - New York NY @ Webster Hall*

11/5/2022 - Boston MA @ The Sinclair*

11/8/2022- Bristol @ Crofters Rights

11/10/2022 - Pitchfork London @ Oslo

11/12/2022 - Brighton @ Folklore

11/13/2022 - Manchester @ The Castle

*with Let's Eat Grandma

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