Mass Gothic have shared the official video for ‘J.Z.O.K.,’ a new single and standout from I’ve Tortured You Long Enough, the group’s forthcoming second album.
The ‘J.Z.O.K.’ visual captures both the optimistic and romantic nature of the song and finds members Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri cavorting through city streets in the wee hours of the night. The video was helmed by returning director Addison Post of Loroto Productions (who also helmed Mass Gothic’s ‘Every Night…’ & ‘Nice Night‘ visuals).
Watch the video below.
Even when you’re married and you’re best friends and you’ve spent a lifetime collaborating with each other, it’s not often obvious what’s staring you right in the face. I’ve Tortured You Long Enough is the tongue-in-cheek title of Mass Gothic’s second album for this reason, among several others. Husband/Wife duo Heroux and Zambri have always dipped in and out of each other’s creative spaces, advising on their respective outputs and supporting one another. But never had they before completely committed to doing an entire album as a duo, sharing an equal load. The time had come. And thank goodness. They have dreamed up a record packed with the tension, chaos and beauty of a fluid and cathartic two-way conversation. In a universe increasingly threatening our abilities to work hard on communication and coexistence, their creative union isn’t just inspired but important. “Why did it take us so long?” laughs Heroux.
Live, Mass Gothic expands to a four-piece with multi-instrumentalist Cristi Jo Zambri and drummer Joe Stickney, who also play on the album. ITYLE was co-produced by the band and Josh Ascalon, mixed by Chris Coady and mastered by Heba Kadry.
I’ve Tortured You Long Enough features the aforementioned “J.Z.O.K.,” and the previously released lyric video for “Dark Window”[watch here], and will be available on CD/LP/DL/CS worldwide August 31st through Sub Pop [buy here]. Preorders of the album through megamart.subpop.com, select independent retailers will receive the limited Loser edition on marbled black and white vinyl (while supplies last).
On Friday, August 10th, Mass Gothic will join labelmates The Afghan Whigs and Yuno to kick-off SPF30: Sub Pop’s 30th Anniversary weekend with a show at Seattle Center’s Mural Amphitheatre. Additional live dates will be announced soon.
Photo credit: Addison Post
What people have said about Mass Gothic:
“Mass Gothic is the spark that rekindled Heroux’s skill as a master songsmith, and that fire sears through the record’s ten tracks. It’s romantic and yearning, bitter and wounded, gratifying and cathartic.” – Pop Matters
“Mass Gothic is stuffed to the brim with thrilling anthems. Opener “Mind Is Probably,” reminiscent of early Tame Impala, accelerates to an overwhelming wall of rock noise. Similarly, headphones can barely contain the energetic rush of “Want To, Bad.” Additionally, Heroux has some new tricks up his sleeve. “Every Night You’ve Got to Save Me” rides an irresistible doo-wop beat, juxtaposing its sober lyrics against bouncy, fun instrumentation.” – Under the Radar
“The record is a trip into a variety of different vibes and reasons to listen to music, forming into a wholly memorable and engaging listen. It warps what you think pop, rock, and punk can do when bleeding into each other, one song to the next.” – Noisey
“The bright synths paired with indie dance-beats, major-key choruses and well-controlled albeit nonchalant vocals are still present, only now there’s more of each of these elements. The spirit of ingenuity is alive and well in Mass Gothic as made apparent by tracks like the memorable “Nice Night,” which is almost entirely guitar driven with a vocal melody that avoids predictability.” – Treble
“Tracks such as the exhilarating “Nice Night” – layered stinging distortion – offer a cathartic energy that’s it’s hard not to be pulled in by. Other highlights include the crisp modern doo-wop of “Every Night You’ve Got To Save Me” and the pulsating digital clatter of “Want To Bad”. The sound of a man finding freedom, it’s an impressive reincarnation.” – Q Magazine
“Noel Heroux started off working alone on a four-track, and after nine years and mild success with his old band, dance-rockers Hooray for Earth, he’s gone back to the way he used to do things. This became a necessity, really — a way of dealing with his depression — but the results capture something quintessential about the emotional experience at hand: There are definite highs, and there are definite lows on his self-titled debut as Mass Gothic for Sub Pop. Sometimes Heroux, who’s accompanied at turns by his wife Jessica Zambri, sounds like he’s trying to kick down the doors of his own brain with the sheer force of distorted riffs and heavy echoes and sharp turns. Other times, he’s just trying to shake off the bad stuff with a dance party where the playlist’s almost exclusively synth-pop.” – Vulture
“The five tracks crackle with staticky, blown-out textures, and there’s more of that crucial interplay between Zambri and Heroux, their vocals given equal footing. Its brevity makes it more unified than the debut, but that wholeness also comes from the duo finding their direction.” [Sup Goth] – Brooklyn Magazine
More on Mass Gothic by Eve Barlow:
Even when you’re married and you’re best friends and you’ve spent a lifetime (18 years is a lifetime, right?) collaborating with each other, it’s not often obvious what’s staring you right in the face. I’ve Tortured You Long Enough is the tongue-in-cheek title of Mass Gothic’s second album for this reason, among several others. Husband/Wife duo Noel Heroux and Jessica Zambri have always dipped in and out of each other’s creative spaces, advising on their respective outputs and supporting one another. But never had they before completely committed to doing an entire album as a duo, sharing an equal load. The time had come. And thank goodness. They have dreamed up a record packed with the tension, chaos and beauty of a fluid and cathartic two-way conversation. In a universe increasingly threatening our abilities to work hard on communication and coexistence, their creative union isn’t just inspired but important. “Why did it take us so long?” laughs Heroux from their home in Queens, New York.
When Heroux put out 2016’s self-titled Mass Gothic record, he was necessarily doing so as a solo entity. Mass Gothic was born as a necessary project for his workings following the aftermath of Hooray For Earth’s end. Plagued by his own insecurities and anxieties, Heroux wasn’t yet ready to deal with putting his trust and confidence into another shared project. He wasn’t in a place to take on the burden of those responsibilities with another individual, especially not an individual so fundamental to his existence. So what changed? He can’t exactly pinpoint when the phrase I’ve Tortured You Long Enough came to him. It was before a single song of this record was written. But it became a mantra, almost a premonition. Says Heroux, “It just popped into my head,” explains Heroux. “You can say it to a loved one, or to a friend. Or you could wish someone say it to you. It covers so many bases but it’s taken on extra meaning in the past couple of years while everybody is at each other’s throats; frustrated and confused all the time.”
The most important application of the phrase, however, was upon Heroux himself. He had tortured his own psyche long enough, and was particularly in need of forcing himself out of his comfort zone and letting go of that prior stubbornness. “I’ve struggled greatly with telling myself that I can’t do things, or that things aren’t good enough.” he says. Then in the Fall of 2016 circumstances led him to face his biggest fears head on, because he physically had no other choice. “We rented a small tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere in upstate New York. We put ourselves away and worked on music all day, wondering what it would feel and sound like,” explains Zambri.
It began with Zambri penning the first iterations of ‘Keep On Dying’, a synth-laden call-to-arms that recalls the frantic energy of Animal Collective and the celestial torch-bearing of Bat For Lashes. Zambri had the melody and lyrics, and Noel arranged the chords to finish the song. Then things started snowballing. While the writing may have begun in New York, it relocated to LA while their lives became totally in flux. They threw caution to the wind last January and got rid of their Brooklyn apartment. Not only that, they also purged all their belongings, except the bare bones for making an album: instruments and recording equipment.
They bought a car and lived out of a duffle bag of clothes for an entire year. They drove to LA, lived with their co-producer Josh Ascalon, and wrote and wrote and wrote. “The entire record from start to finish was done without having our own place to live,” marvels Heroux now. “Maybe we wouldn’t have been able to do it if we were anchored at home. We were forced into it. Jess was trying to open me up and if we could have just sat on a couch and thrown on the TV it probably wouldn’t have worked.”
The partnership has distinctly evolved the project’s sound. “Mass Gothic” was a far more diverse debut, and as the most successful debuts do it was just Heroux by himself, throwing a hundred different ideas at the wall. He describes it now as “the hellish sounds” of his own brain. Its follow-up therefore is a far more intentional meeting-of-minds. Their openness to work with one another had to come without rules as neither of them could afford to hold back.
Last Spring, for instance, when they thought they’d done all the work and had a fully mixed album, they realized separately that it had way more potential. While they were preparing to go on tour with Zambri’s sister, Cristi Jo, and her sister’s boyfriend Joseph Stickney, Heroux woke up one morning, turned to Zambri and said: “Oh god, we have to fucking re-record the whole album.” The rehearsals were the equivalent of pre-records, and they knew the tracks could accomplish so much more. Although he was afraid to say it out loud, they both agreed it was what was required.
The final ten days took place in the studio in Brooklyn where they laid it down from start to finish with Rick Kwan (Chris Coady mixed the record and Heba Kadry mastered it). “It was too pristine before,” says Zambri. “We wanted it to be perfect but it wasn’t breathing. Even if there would be tension, we wanted it to flow like water.” On that front they’ve achieved a remarkable arc. Bookended by the tracks ‘Dark Window’ and ‘Big Window’, it begins from a place of uncertainty, overwhelming disquiet and self-doubt, and it works towards a feeling greater than the individual. Via an optimistic number of romantic love songs (‘Call Me’, ‘J.Z.O.K.’, ‘How I Love You’) the record basks in the acceptance of co-dependence. Even though the works are intensive, there’s an element of ease to their overall message. The chords and beats may feel squeezed and claustrophobic at times, but expansive guitar tones and electronics allow the listener to deep dive into a chasm of potential.
“Overall it’s a conversation between the two of us,” explains Zambri. It isn’t autobiographical to the point of alienating its listener though. It’s important that the songs provoke. It’s a record that concludes with the comfort in knowing that you can be both independent and successful in a relationship, which speaks quite literally of the pairs’ experience giving in to this process with one another.
I’ve Tortured You Long Enough
Tracklisting
- Dark Window
- Call Me
- J.Z.O.K.
- Keep On Dying
- How I Love You
- I’ve Tortured You Long Enough
- New Work
- The Goad
- Big Window
Socials
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