Enigmatic Sydney-based artist Suburban has reemerged from the depths of COVID with an ambitious film project up his sleeve.
Dubbed [S]LEEP [A]LL [D]AY, [F]EAST [U]PON [N]IGHT (or [S][A][D], [F][U][N] for short), the project is essentially a short film, soundtracked by an original 12-track mixtape, which lays bare the artist’s struggles with bipolar disorder, insomnia, alcoholism and suicide.
“The film’s day-in-the-life premise condenses a 6+ month battle that started with wrongly-prescribed medication, accelerated through insomnia and faux-armoured mania, and crashed into a crippling depression with suicidal thoughts,” the proudly DIY artist explains.
“Each song within the soundtrack was written during these stages and provides an honest insight into the mind’s tendency to snowball and attack itself during depression, as well as the manic feeling it evokes of invincibility, hurtling into substance-abuse and reckless behaviour.”
The self-styled “genre-fluid” rapper will screen the movie exclusively for fans in his home city, with at a brick-and-mortar premiere slated for Newtown’s iconic Dendy Cinemas on July 1st (grab tickets here).
Former NRL player and proud Wiradjuri man Joe Williams, who heads up NFP organisation The Enemy Within, will speak at the event about mental health and generational trauma, both on a personal level and in relation to their impact on First Nations communities.
Importantly, all proceeds from the premiere event will be donated to The Enemy Within, to go towards the organisation’s important work helping those who struggle with mental illness.
For fans in other parts of the world, the event will also be accompanied by a simultaneous YouTube live premiere.
Hot on the heels of the screening event, the film’s 12-tune soundtrack will be released across all streaming platforms via Adventure Cat Records. For now though, you can take the first frantic cut ‘Mania, Mania’ for a spin, as well as peep the official trailer for [S]LEEP [A]LL [D]AY, [F]EAST [U]PON [N]IGHT , below.
Since returning from a 10-date UK tour at the end of 2019 supporting Sumo Cyco and a slew of dates across Australia, Suburban has released an unpredictable stream of “genre-averse” music, including an EP entitled DENT compiling a mixture of heavy, hip-hop and drum n’ bass sounds, as well as a free series of isolation-releases entitled BALLOONS via SoundCloud that encompasses a range of lowkey, lyricalled hip-hop and R&B tunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqYne9NnOYM
