Sex Week – Upper Mezzanine
Sex Week release their new EP, Upper Mezzanine, today via Grand Jury.
Of the unpredictable, sometimes gloomy, sometimes playful EP, the band says “’Upper Mezzanine’ was chosen as our second EP title because it represents a level that doesn’t really exist. Somewhere in between. You’re grateful to not be in the nosebleeds, but you’re also not in the orchestra seating. We’re still discovering our identity with every song we make, and so this batch of songs helped shape us and hopefully potential future songs.”
To mark the release the band has shared a video for EP highlight “Moneyman,” directed by Poppy Shaw.
“‘Moneyman’ is about having to pay the “money man” money, all while keeping love alive. Everyone in america has a moneyman, a stranger waiting to be paid, whether it be an actual person or a credit card company.”
“The approach for Upper Mezzanine felt more inquisitive,” says co-vocalist Pearl Amanda Dickson, a relative newcomer to the songwriting world. Sex Week started in 2022 when her now-partner Richard Orofino – a prolific musician & producer since he was in grade school – fell in love with her taste via a wildly eclectic playlist she made for his roommate. Orofino excelled at, as he put it, “honing structural strangeness into something more recognizable.” So Pearl’s precocious perspective and natural appetite for the stranger corners of music was a natural fit.
So where the music of their debut felt like momentarily glimpses of something scary and exciting – here things feel far more visceral, each track a focused punch delivered directly from the gut. “I still want people to be singing along and taking the melodies away with them, but the darkness of this EP is obviously there,” says Dickson. “The world is scary right now. I’m scared in lots of ways, and I think that omnipresent feeling definitely snuck into Upper Mezzanine.”
Part of the band’s charm on Sex Week was how they paired those rough edges with a surprising playfulness, finding a hopeful glow in the gloom and vice versa on nearly every song. “The balance is necessary” says Orofino, “which makes it both conscious and unconscious. We are aware of it as it’s happening but it happens every time.”
Tour Dates:
08/02 – Ridgewood, NY @ TV Eye (EP Release Show)
08/15 – Wales, UK @ Green Man Festival
08/20 – London UK @ Shacklewell Arms
08/22 – Liverpool, UK – Rough Trade Liverpool
08/23 – Nottingham, UK – Rough Trade Nottingham
08/24 – London, UK @ All Points East
08/30 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest #sexweeek