Spotlight: We're All Made of ‘Star Stuff’: Ian Sweet Drops Latest EP

Q&AMusic

Jul 19

☆ BY ALEAH ANTONIO ☆

“I’VE HAD A REALLY HARD PAST YEAR” — Ian Sweet’s frontwoman, Jilian Medford, tells me when I ask her how she’s been. She prefaces this reflection with “good,” though — at least for the past few months. The morning of, she goes to therapy and shares her conversations with her therapist: “I was like, I feel like I’m really antisocial. She's like, ‘Are you antisocial or are you just enjoying your alone time and being able for the first time to be on your own?’ I was like, 'You're right.’ I'm actually just fully spending quality time with myself in a way that I haven't in many years.”

The past year for Ian Sweet has been one of her most successful and career-defining. In the spring of 2021, Medford released her third studio album, Show Me How You Disappear, a raw and experimental pivot from her previous guitar-driven indie records. Medford gained critical acclaim for the album from the likes of Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, as well as pointed herself towards a new direction in her genre. It was also the record she wrote as an outpatient in a therapy program for anxiety following a bout of severe anxiety and emotional turmoil. After its release, Medford spent her time healing and writing new music.

“I'd say the last year was pretty hard,” she shares. “I went through a rough breakup with someone I was living with, shared a dog with, shared the whole world and life with. I had to get my bearings again after feeling so solid. I was a little shaken. It kind of knocked me down. But that being said, the last four months, I've been really, really good.”

And she has — last week, Ian Sweet released her newest EP, STAR STUFF, via Polyvinyl Records. The eclectic four-track collection was written during the aftermath of the singer’s breakup. The EP narrates the ebbs and flows of such healing processes, be it sacrificing yourself for another in “DIE A MILLION TIMES” or breaking free from codependency in “STAR STUFF.”

If Show Me How You Disappear communicated through catharsis, STAR STUFF does so through rejuvenation. Inspired by one part of Cocteau Twins, two parts 2000s pop and a dash of karaoke songs, Medford's EP is gritty and bright, subconsciously incorporating hyperpop and wall-of-sound sensibilities. The project wraps up with a remix of “FIGHT” by electronic producer duo DAGR, turning the song into a glittery bounce house of a track.

“[Show Me How You Disappear] has kind of launched me into experimenting with more pop styles and redefines what that means for myself, bringing my own indie rock background into the pop space and seeing how we can get away with it,” Medford says. “[My producers and I] were kind of inspired by the HitClip genre and wanted to make bubblegum-y pop, but fuck it up.”

The karaoke songs Medford chooses (think Natalie Imbruglia and Sheryl Crow) have a lot in common with songs on STAR STUFF, in that dancing to and singing about heartbreak can heal like nothing else. This comes to life in not only the songs but in the music video for “FIGHT,” which was filmed onsite at Medford’s favorite karaoke bar. She recruited strangers off Craigslist along with close friends to be the singers and bar-goers. 20-somethings, tattooed oldheads, and wistful ladies all get up on stage to release themselves into “FIGHT,” eventually tossing Medford up in the air in a crowdsurf.

Ian Sweet will head on a summer tour with BNNY for the release of STAR STUFF after just coming back from a spring UK run. Considering the milestones she’s achieved over the past year, Medford remarks that as an artist it’s hard to gauge your own growth.

“It's really hard to grasp because you're so in your head about what you make and you're thinking about it constantly,” she explains. “You're so in it that sometimes it's hard to have perspective and zoom out and be like, I have grown a lot, people are paying attention.”

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We couldn’t be more stoked to have Suriel Hess as our new headliner for our upcoming LA show 🤩 🫶 Not gonna lie, us & Notorious Noise kinda went OFF with this line up & you’re not gonna wanna miss it - ticket link in bio 🎫