While the pandemic is still very much a reality, the period of Quarantine Brain feels distant in the rearview—whether due to repression, a newly fortified inability to comprehend the term “Cuomosexual,” or the fact that most of us got vaccinated several months ago. Yet Gregory DiMartino lucidly taps into this moment in ancient history on his new single under the moniker Tino Drima (if you have Scrabble tiles in front of you, go ahead and rearrange these letters and see if there’s a surname you can spell out), with the jaunty “Computer Valentine” echoing the insular joy of connecting with others on the internet knowing full well that you’ll never need to experience the anxiety of meeting IRL. “Tomorrow I’ll be back on my shit / High as a kite / Screaming at birds as I’m riding my bike,” DiMartino sings a bit solemnly.
“During quarantine I found talking to people on the internet to be a huge source of comfort for me,” he shares. “Just straight up texting and messaging—people I knew years ago IRL, Instagram people, internet dating people. Really enjoyed talking to them in the daytime through the night, no real intention of ever meeting up. The thought of doing so was so scary to me and our relationship was perfect as it was. Fantasizing about meeting was wonderful, and those fantasies made my head a nicer place to be. Free of anxieties and guilt, I could just wonder about my lil’ computer crush and ask them what they are eating today.
“I have no idea how healthy these relationships are,” he continues. “How unbalanced are they? What if expectations are wildly different? How many other people are they talking to? Have I invented a completely fictional fantasy character and projected it onto an almost arbitrary vessel? Am I a sick fuck for that? These are things I was wondering about. Ultimately none of it mattered because what I was doing IRL was chill—I was taking care of myself and loving myself.”
Hear the track below.
