Indie-folk artist, Amy Jay, has announced her upcoming album, ‘Awake Sleeper‘, from which the new single, “Monster” is taken. ‘Awake Sleeper’ is Jay’s first full-length release and follows two EPs, 2016’s ‘Supposed to Be’ and 2018’s ‘So It Is.’ ‘Monster‘ is a taut examination of those parts of the personality we tend to keep hidden – or at least try to keep hidden – as we negotiate societal interactions. The try part is alluded to by Jay when she sings “I have a monster inside of me / She has made a nice home / She feeds well on anxiety / A balanced diet of fear and control.” Not that these internal voices are that welcome: “I’ve asked her to go away – she respectfully declines.”
Amy Jay explained what she hopes for from the song: “I want the listener to feel suspended in an outer calm and inner angst, to go back to formative memories, to relive the sensory experiences that shaped them, and empower them to delve deep and process those emotions head on. This is anxiety, a powerful emotion that if not kept in check can wreak havoc.” Although, she reflects that “I don’t know what life would be like without any anxiety – it has been with me in and out for so long. And somehow that is comforting, like an unhealthy relationship you know you need to walk away from, but you can’t because you feel it is all you know. Without it, you would be even more lost. And that’s just it–anxiety seems like a separate being from me–like a second self that is following me as a shadow wherever I go. It doesn’t feel like the true me when it’s there, but I somehow can’t let go of it.”
