Atlanta-based songwriter Aidy—a.k.a. Mallbangs—announced their new EP Checking for Daggers back in August with “New Face,” a lead single that bounced back and forth between glitchy bedroom-pop verses and a whiplash-inducing grunge chorus. Yet “Make Believe,” the latest taste of the project—produced by Grouplove’s Daniel Gleason—paints it as a much more placid listen, even if Aidy sees the new track as a bit of an outlier (it’s “the one song on the album that just sounds fun,” they promise).
“I started writing it one night after I moved into one of those hundred-year-old houses in Grant Park, Atlanta,” they explain. “It was right around the beginning of the pandemic, so everything was still up in the air, and this song came out of nowhere, and happened very quickly. If it isn’t obvious from the first verse, this is about questioning one’s identity, specifically gender identity.”
Aided by fellow Atlantan Connor Down of Lunar Vacation, who penned the drum part on the track, “Make Believe” is a euphoric capsule of upbeat experimental pop ideas set to self-reflective lyrics. Check it out below.
