Will you love me if I’m a failure?

The Wants, Fear My Society

NYC-based band The Wants are back with this gorgeous post-punk track, and video, for “Fear My Society.” You may know the band from their other project Bodega—which is nothing but high-energy and excellent songwriting—but, The Wants is here to give us a moodier, more art-punk alternative.

Their second single took years to find it’s final form, as songwriter Madison explains:

“Fear My Society is a song that has gone through multiple genre shifts and moods until it finally clicked this past year. In one sense, the lyrics couldn’t be more straightforward — a reflection of the always-shifting (though recently seismically so) political, economic, and technological atmosphere of the United States. But I didn’t write the song in reaction to this. I was reflecting on the pressures I put on myself to achieve — “will you love me if I’m a failure?” is an honest concern of mine, a universal and primal concern that spans generations and even species. I’m interested in always pushing a step further towards what scares me.”

The video for “Fear My Society” follows Velding-VanDam as he inhabits a character and lifestyle that he had envisioned in a previous chapter of life—which had been spent working odd-yet-more-properly-stable jobs in retail, customer service, and the service industry.

Watch the provocative video below.

Directed by Madison Carroll and Madison Velding-VanDam

Cinematography by Madison Carroll

Edited by Madison Velding-VanDam