“sweet decay,” one of the latest tracks from 18-year-old Korean producer Chasu, is the perfect ballad for an apocalypse sunset. “I’ll keep you close when the world’s aflame,” he sings dreamily. The romantic track is a saccharine proclamation of love by way of guiding the breeze. The track is part of a double single along with the song “séance,” which is an homage to big bands like Count Basie and Gerry Mulligan that he grew up listening to.
Chasu shares his journey of making the two tracks: “They were born out of necessity, really: I had to vomit my anxieties somewhere, and I couldn’t get that kind of catharsis by toplining for someone else. Both songs took at most a full day to produce, write, and record, and out came two of the most honest songs I’ve written; some things I tried my hardest not to write about found themselves on the page anyway.
“I originally intended for ‘sweet decay’ to be a corny, lovesick ballad, but, like much of my songwriting, it turned out much more bittersweet than I’d expected. The song is about dying next to someone you love—hence the lyric ‘loving you is a sweet decay’—and features electric guitar from longtime collaborator Joe Cho, a friend I met at jazz camp in my sophomore year of high school.”
Watch the striking visual below, and stream the project here.
