Meanwhile. Icarus

This is Icarus by Meanwhile it’s the second track from his forthcoming EP, ‘The Element Yes’, on December 1. It instantly reminded us of the excitement we felt listening to Diamonds & Pearls era Prince, fused with the complex cacophony of TV On The Radio. It really doesn’t get much more exciting than this.

Meanwhile is the sole support for La Roux on tour across the UK & Europe in November and December (including a date at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire on November 12).

A singer, producer and film score writer,  Meanwhile is 23-year-old Tom Andrews, who writes and produces from his bedroom in a small town off the M3. At a young age Tom became transfixed by the visual film scores of Tim Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, and began composing ambitious instrumental pieces after school at the piano. He sought to take what he learned there and channel it through the hip-hop productions of Madlib and the larger-than-life pop of his parents’ record collection (Prince, Bowie). An intended tattoo to tackle anxiety – “Meanwhile” – gave birth to a colourful alter-ego, and the tensions that would persist through songs which are simultaneously outlandish and honest, confident but conflicted.

Meanwhile’s debut EP, ‘The Element Yes’, is a suitably cinematic soundtrack of one’s turbulent formative years, but its DIY roots are closer to The Home Counties than Hollywood Hills. ‘Icarus’ is a fidgety, restless blend of hip-hop beats with futuristic funk, a snapshot of small-town boredom taking flight (“I know there’s more fight in you Icarus”). Penned in two hours after Meanwhile’s then-band imploded –  and the first song he ever wrote and self-produced – it’s ultimately about friendship and moving forward; a story which is picked up again on ‘Apples & Oranges’, in its meditative but lighter-waving account of those bonds which remain tight, no matter the differences. Elsewhere, Meanwhile takes an escapist lens to suburban lust and loss: the more experimental ‘All For The Taking’ is a surprising mix of four-to-the-floor beats with a heavy crash of guitars, capturing that chaos of early infatuation. Glam-infused closer ‘AAIU’, however, falls back down to earth: imagined as “a funeral of summer”, it accepts a doomed romance but also celebrates the value your time spent together. As the surging piano outro kicks in, all that’s missing is the fade-to-black and closing credits.

Widescreen but intimate, ‘The Element Yes’ takes its name, in part, from those lessons learned in awkward adolescence. It’s this idea that positivity itself is almost chemical, and a building block for whatever life you want. His debut EP traces those big themes of growing up but maintaining your innocence, of reinventing yourself but also telling the truth, in the eternal pursuit of that element. With it, anything is possible. Just ask Meanwhile.