Bridie Monds-Watson, aka SOAK has shared new tune purgatory. It’s the second single from their third album If I Never Know You Like This Again.

The new track is accompanied by a video shot by Ellius Grace. If I Never Know You Like This Again is the follow up to 2019’s Grim Town and SOAK’s Mercury-nominated 2015 debut album Before We Forgot How to Dream. The new album will be out on 20th May.

Bridie explains where the song came from.

“‘purgatory’ is about the weight of time and the perpetual fear of reaching the end of your life, unsatisfied with how you’d spent it. The song came out of a slump phase, I wasn’t really a fan of myself and honestly just felt rather lost. In ways that felt like it’s own purgatory. I was trying to figure out how to make myself feel better, become a ‘better version’ of myself. So I guess whilst this song is about panic, it’s equally about the pursuit of change.”

SOAK’s Bridie Monds-Watson (they/them) has incessantly documented their life in photos and video from a young age.

“I hate the idea of getting older and forgetting, or having a family and not being able to perfectly explain a memory or a feeling. I always want to remember exactly how I felt at a certain moment,” they explain.

It makes perfect sense then that If I Never Know You Like This Again is made up of what Bridie calls “song-memories”. Having written much of the new album during the pandemic, when time felt at its slowest, Bridie’s obsessive need to document each chapter of their life made a marvel of the mundane.

Alongside long-time collaborator Tommy McLaughlin (he/him), the two wrote most of the album together while listening obsessively to indie bands like Broken Social Scene and Pavement and Radiohead’s classic album The Bends.

Take a look at the new video. 

OIP Staff

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