Ian Sweet – 987
Fresh off the release of her critically acclaimed album Shiverstruck, IAN SWEET–the moniker of Los Angeles-based musician Jilian Medford–has debuted an official music video for “987.” Shot in a junkyard, the arresting visual directed by Lucy Sandler brings the album’s tender track to life.
Medford comments, “‘987’ is about trying to move through the wreckage and messier moments in your life with some grace and understanding for yourself. Lucy and I found this incredible junkyard and basically spent the day climbing on smashed cars and playing around while everyone working there just carried on around us. It felt like the perfect landscape for the song, finding some beauty in the mess and continuing to move through it.”
Since release of Shiverstruck, IAN SWEET has been featured in Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR, SPIN, Hearing Things, Paste, FLOOD, IMAGINE, Polyester, Numero Netherlands, and more, with Pitchfork praising her continued artistic evolution, writing that Medford “finds even more space within the boundaries of pop music to continue expanding IAN SWEET’s sound.” Paste hailed album track “Hired Gun” as “…a fantastic, important song with motorik propulsion, some wicked guitar parts, and smart commentary,” while Stereogum celebrated single “Criminal Kissing” as a “sweeping, lovesick anthem.”
Across her career, Medford has cultivated a body of work defined by emotional precision and dynamic force—guitars that lurch from whisper to rupture, melodies that carry both ache and defiance. Her songs interrogate identity not as a fixed condition, but as something negotiated daily. Often associated with a lineage of confessional indie rock, she has been labeled a “sad girl,” an archetype she once embraced, whether as armor or proof of depth. There are stretches when the line between Jilian and IAN SWEET disappears entirely—this time around a very real life trifecta of battling industry pressures, the ending of a 3-year relationship, and a return to living in her native city of Los Angeles. Where earlier works collapsed the distance between Jilian and IAN SWEET, this record gently reestablishes it. Her trajectory has never been about sadness itself; it has been about understanding it, metabolizing it, and ultimately refusing to be reduced by it.
Shiverstruck was written during her second year living in New York City, a period that shaped her in ways both profound and messy. In 2023, to make ends meet amidst the increasingly unsustainable economies of touring and streaming as an independent musician, Medford put her strengths as a songwriter to the test, taking an unexpected job working with children. “Watching children respond to music for the first time; their faces lighting up completely unselfconscious, it rewires your brain as a songwriter and steers you more towards honesty. Everything felt immediate and real.” The writing process became an act of surrender and an intentional relinquishing of control. Rather than meticulously sculpting every emotion, she allowed the songs to assume their own architecture. In doing so, she discovered a new softness—a compassion for herself that doesn’t require total collapse to feel human.
Following a sold-out album release show at Los Angeles’ iconic Bob Baker Marionette Theater and a run supporting American Football, IAN SWEET will kick off an extensive North American headline tour this October, with stops in Brooklyn, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and more.
2026 US HEADLINE TOUR DATES
Tue. Oct. 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool ^
Thu. Oct. 15 – Portsmouth, NH @ The Press Room
Fri. Oct. 16 – Battleboro, VT @ The Stone Church
Sat. Oct. 17 – Montreal, QC @ La Sotterenea
Sun. Oct. 18 – Toronto, ON @ The Baby G
Tue. Oct. 20 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme
Wed. Oct. 21 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
Thu. Oct. 22 – Milwaukee, WI @ Falcon Bowl
Fri. Oct. 23 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
Sat. Oct. 24 – Eau Claire, WI @ The Plus
Mon. Oct. 26 – Nashville, TN @ Drkmttr
Tue. Oct. 27 – Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5 ^
Wed. Oct. 28 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
Thu. Oct. 29 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel ^
Fri. Oct. 30 – Washington, DC @ DC9 ^
Tue. Nov. 3 – Seattle, WA @ Baba Yaga
Wed. Nov. 4 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
Fri. Nov. 6 – San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
Sat. Nov. 7 – Los Angeles, CA @ Sid The Cat Auditorium !
^ w/ Meg Elsier
! w/ Luella
#ian_sweeeeet