Designer turned music artist NEO 10Y is back with an echoing, rock-inspired track, "Reality Check." The video and song takes aim at the patriarchy and Trump as he stands poised to collect his lost time from the injustices of administrations everywhere. Thrashing about an industrial landscape, at times consumed by a mop of jet black hair, NEO 10Y demands, as he puts it, "luxury communism for all."
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"We don't all need '7 Rings' levels of income, but it would be nice if we could collectively provide for every human that needs base level support," he muses to PAPER about the current state of affairs around the world. "I've been fucked by and subsequently killed Trump [in the video], I've been in solitary confinement on Mars, locked in a cryogenic pod. My videography is a trip.
NEO 10Y also seems especially focused on the aesthetics of rock in the video, where he transitions from black cape to crop-top seamlessly, letting anger take hold while trying to maintain the calmness that is imposed on activists. "I believe there is a growing group of us across various disciplines, artists and activists, who are both knowingly and unknowingly part of a collective movement." This movement, he says, is a way to heal the ills of the planet's institutions."
While the aesthetic is certainly in conversation with pop-punk releases and ideas, NEO 10Y sees his music as "genre-bending." This motivation is evident in the composition of the song, as he floats in and out of the spoken word to create a moody core that can only be described as jarring. His reverberating vocals are distorted at times — his words become muffled, but at high frequencies that dare to challenge a limiter.
Try to get a grip on what's real and watch the PAPER premiere of "Reality Check," below.
Photography: Patrick Hope