Military Genius Shares 'Scarred For Life' Title Song

10-21-2024

(Chromatic) Military Genius today shared "Scarred for Life," the smooth and spacious title track of his new album out November 1st, 2024, via Unheard of Hope. "This song was born out of the intense heat of the Mojave desert," explains the Joshua Tree, CA-based songwriter/producer Bryce Cloghesy (also of Crack Cloud). "I was reflecting on coping mechanisms, facing challenging moments, and the inclination towards escapism. The sun out there cuts like a razor. There is no respite. It was a fitting environment to be confronted with my own mortality. In that state of mind it's important to laugh and let go of the reins. We are all playing the fool, part of a strange and twisted game that takes us on many unexpected turns. Here I finally had a chance to look back on some tough experiences, crystallize them into song, and be free. An old scar can eventually become a badge of honor. It may never fully heal, but it grows and changes, and there's magic in that process. This became a recurring theme of the record, one that speaks to the beauty and the harsh intensity of the human experience."

"Scarred for Life" follows the R&B-tinged, expressive and crisp "Window to the Soul" and pensive lead single "Darkest Hour," which have earned support from Paste (Best New Songs), Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar (Best Songs of the Week), Buzzbands.la, Northern Transmissions, and more. Military Genius will embark on a headlining tour of the UK and Europe this fall, including a show at London's Sebright Arms on November 7th and a performance at the Netherlands' Le Guess Who? Festival on November 9th. Tickets for all headlining dates are on-sale now.

The follow-up to his atmospheric 2020 debut Deep Web, Scarred for Life is a genre-flexing mix of bass-heavy R&B, spaced dub, and jazz that is newly grounded within a more traditional rock framework and centered on lyricism. The starting point for the album-which was written, recorded, engineered, and produced by Cloghesy-was to try and make sense of 'the toll taken by a life lived, and the complex beauty of a reality that can never be repeated or replicated.'

The album's title refers to a gruesome episode in Cloghesy's life in 2012, when he had a near-death experience after falling through a window. "I tore up my left arm real good and never slowed down to process the trauma," he says. Add a debilitating series of panic attacks and depressive episodes to the charge sheet-followed by several significant life changes like a move from Canada to California, getting married, and becoming a father-and it's clear the record has a lot of heavy lifting to do. "It took some time to realize that I had been working tirelessly for years, white-knuckling life without any tools to process stress or trauma. So there are many lyrics about that mental health journey, learning to cope and accept," Cloghesy explains. He found "a powerful catharsis putting these experiences into words," and the music reflects and celebrates a greater understanding and appreciation of how life can be lived.

Cloghesy faced his creative crosswords by embracing raw acoustic sounds and a 'human-first' approach to the recording process. Ideas were formulated and initially recorded onto cassette tape with minimal editing. Blemishes and artifacts were welcomed, adding to the record's realism and personal character. "I found excitement in creating something naturalistic and hand-made, flawed by its own humanity," he says. Cloghesy describes the process as "extremely dogmatic and physically demanding but worth it, as something really passionate, poetic, and romantic came out in the final recordings."

Military Genius Tour Dates:
11/03 - Glasgow, UK - Garage Attic
11/04 - Birmingham, UK - Hare and Hounds
11/05 - Leeds, UK - Brudenell Social Club
11/07 - London, UK - Sebright Arms
11/09 - Utrecht, NL - Le Guess Who? Festival
11/10 - Amsterdam, NL - Cinetol
11/11 - Berlin, DE - Silent Green
11/13 - Jena, DE - TRAFO
11/15 - Prague, CZ - NoD