Setting the tone with enigmatic guitar and distant vocals, Stephen Lavine opens his new song Midnight Manic Thoughts with the emotive lyrics, “Hey mama I’m fine, I’m just wasting my time, got a lot on the line these days…”
As the song expands, we experience a hybrid soundscape of keys, guitar and astral textures, and what Stephen describes as “a stream of consciousness style reflection on the growing pains of changing as a person”.
The rising artist from Mount Holly continues, “Specifically the pain of feeling like the ones around me have a front row seat to the messiness of my constant existential searching.”
We love how emotionally Stephen sings as he channels the universe, and the wisdom that he is sharing through self-realization and the amplification of his art.
Stephen cites Noah Gundersen, The Rocket Summer and The 1975 as influences, but it is clear that he is creating a frequency of his own. He elaborates, “I kind of pulled from years of phases and influences for this one. It’s a little singer songwriter, a little rock, and maybe a little emo? I’m a former emo kid grew up to write overly-dramatic music to make meaning and sense of the world.”
When discussing his influences, Stephen confesses “I’m a songwriter at heart. Before that, I’m a husband. I’m a father. I’m a deep thinker always at the threshold of depression. Most importantly, I’m driven by meaning. Some days I’m a person of faith and some days I’m a nihilist. All of these things make up the lens that I view this life through and all of these things certainly impact the way that I write songs. You could say that it is because of these things that I write songs.”
Stephen demonstrates a mutable understanding of reality and how he channels what he has learnt into his artistry. We have added Midnight Manic Thoughts to our New Music Spotlight playlist and have been immersing ourselves in Stephen Lavine‘s wider discography.