06 December 2022 - 0 Comments

Wellington, New Zealand based songwriter and producer Raiden Freeman (real name Jack Mells) has released Megatron (featuring Annabel Lee), the first single from his upcoming album Within The Speed Limit Of Love. It comes with an accompanying music video directed by Mells himself in collaboration with Samuel Austin. The song is also available to stream from all good music services, and available to buy from Bandcamp along with a pre-order for the full album.

Hot off the heels of this, Mells will be releasing the second single from Within The Speed Limit Of Love, titled S.O.T.S. (Song Of The Summer). A collaboration between Wellington-based emo songsmith Welcomer (Miles Sutton) and Tūrangi-based ethereal electronic composer Skymning (Asher Lee), the track is a poignant, wry and touching folk pop song with rap verses and production. The single will be release on the 6th of December, 2022.

The impetus came from Sutton, who sent some musical parts to Mells in January 2022, jokingly saying "lets make the song of the summer". Mells didn't do anything with the material until June, by which time it was the middle of winter, prompting Mells to improvise the tongue-in-cheek opening lines: "I just wrote the song of the summer, in the frigid wintertime walk outside like I'm a runner." The second verse is written and performed by Skymning, in a career first putting a rap verse on a track. The verses touch on ideas of formative childhood memories, responsibilities of growing older, fumbling life opportunities and the precariousness of maintaining a social life in adulthood.

The single comes with an accompanying music video created by the three artists, which was shot by Sutton using Mells's cellphone. The video cuts together different takes of Mells and Lee lipsyncing the song to the camera in different locations around Wellington, the grey overcast skies in the background reinforcing the playful irony of the title. One take features a crowd of music fans and creators dancing in the background, filmed impromptu after a live gig in the city. Mells's sister's dog Theo also stars in the video.

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