In his new single ‘Brighter’, AUTUMNBOY has gone above and beyond to bring the styles of Emo Rap, Midwest Emo, and Post-Hardcore to the table in a way that is both catchy and accessible. Taking the very really feelings of anxiety and exhaustion, Autumnboy has crafted a fast paced yet articulate insight into his emotional process.
Using his music as sonic diary, British songwriter/performer Autumnboy continuously weaves unique soundscapes that tell his own story. Pulling influences from Emo music from both the modern day and the past few decades, he continues to find new and innovative ways to articulate his journey of faith and mental health. Having strong roots in the local emo music scene growing up, the 26 year old writer believes that it is imperative to share his experiences and the hope that he has found to better the lives of others in alternative subcultures in a new and unique way.
Discussing the new single, Lee Butler states, “I’ve dealt with the crippling struggles with procrastinating life, and the anxiety that follows for as long as I can remember. Being able to articulate this in a song that truly captures how I feel is so exciting for me.”
𝐵𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼’𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠.
“I constantly struggle in feeling like I’m not good enough, procrastinate endlessly, and then when I do start to get on top of things, my anxiety of burning out and messing up becomes overwhelming. It happens in all areas of my life, work, faith, the things I love, so this song encompasses all of that for me. The process of yearning to be a better man, wanting to be more like the God I serve, yet being constantly trodden on by my own short-comings.
I tried to reflect this emotional process in the video for Brighter by having a juxtaposition of it being fast paced but still having the stagnant and almost claustrophobic vibe of me being trapped in my house.
The video itself was a very interesting project, I initially had bigger plans. I wanted to do much more and wanted to work with more people. As I moved towards making it a reality things fell apart and I still had deadlines to meet, which was a blessing really. I’ve ended up making one of my favourite pieces yet, and I was able to execute my vision for the project without relying on some of the external factors mentioned previously.”
Asked about inspirations for his new record, Lee continues: “As I’ve moved from record to record as Autumnboy, I’ve always had different inspirations from different places, but the growing theme thats stayed the same is striving towards excellent, pop based songwriting. The younger, elitist version of myself would hate to hear it, but I just love the cohesion, talent and strength of pop songwriting. That being said, I’m not going to be shooting for the charts any time soon, pop songwriting applies to many genres that aren’t pop, and I think that very much includes me with this new record. In terms of specified influences, you’ll hear me pulling from Midwest Emo, Metalcore, Radio Rock, even a little bit of Drum n Bass, and of course Emo Rap as a whole.”
“For the rest of the year I really wanna keep honing in on who I am, get closer to God, write as many bangers as possible, play a ton of shows (covid allowing) and make a ton of friends!” – he concludes.
