As members of Fat White Family and Childhood respectively, Saul Adamczewski and Ben Romans-Hopcraft have helped lay foundations for the south London's booming underground rock scene. Away from their other bands, they have recorded a sprawling album together as Insecure Men on which they draw inspiration from The Carpenters, David Lynch, and Harry Nilsson among others. The duo will release its self-titled debut via Fat Possum on February 23 and today they premiere the video for lead single "Teenage Toy" on The FADER.
Recorded during album sessions at Sean Lennon’s studio in upstate New York, the scuzzy electro-pop of "Teenage Toy" is accompanied by a visual which nods to classic British cinema such as Mike Leigh's 1977 middle class satire, Abigail's Party. The group perform the song in a drab looking bedsit, filled with murky brown decorations and dirty upholstery. It visualizes one side of a song Adamczewski describes as “pretty music with a dark underbelly to it.”
“'Teenage Toy' is about adolescent sexuality and how frustrating that can be for most of us, especially people growing up in the suburbs or suburbs of the suburbs,” he adds via email. “Like those towns that only have one garage. We wanted it to sound like a demented cartoon world. I think we achieved that.”
Check out the video in full above. Insecure Men head out on a U.K. headline tour in March following the release of their album.
Thumbnail credit: Neil Thomson.