Junior Mesa’s elusive and sparsely dropped singles have looped relentlessly in my mind since I first heard Good Time. His sound burning deep into my earworm-prone brain, with melodic, soulful vocal lines, saturated drums and a guitar sound that makes every Mk.Gee guitar preset creator whine. But if it was just about the music, I probably wouldn’t write about it: together with his long time creative partner Noah Kentis, the two shaped out a visual language that emotionally translates the eclectic mania of his songs, triggering this sense of mystic nostalgia, undefined yet clearly present. In a recent newsletter interview with Pigeons & Planes they called it “the bull’s-eye between euphoria and panic”.
The duo’s videos often consists of fragments of moments you’d find yourself in on a hot summer day, after a long shift at work, during a strange night out or visiting your friend in another country. the cops are coming is no different, it’s precisely the mix of people and the non-detailed nature of the action we see them doing, alluding to a much bigger but hidden picture, that makes one crave 6 weeks off, check in with friends & family and go on a road trip. Junior Mesa’s vocals take this raw notion and chisel it into a feeling, backed by saturated and distorted drums and guitars that could be playing from an old cassette in a car’s rattling speakers.
In the Pigeons & Planes interview, Junior said “I wouldn’t have released it if he [Noah Kentis, ed] hadn’t shown extreme excitement and willingness to come to Bakersfield and film a video.” Let’s hope he keeps on sharing his songs with Kentis and maybe we’ll get an album at some point – or he comes to play in Berlin?!
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