Philadelphia-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Greg Mendez shares a video for “Maria,” the new single from his stunning new self-titled album out May 5th on Forged Artifacts / Devil Town Tapes. The prolific and thoughtful songwriter explores themes of heartbreak and addiction with an intentional, authentic haze and a quiet, lo-fi urgency. While recognizing the severity of certain situations, Mendez is also careful to showcase the absurdity of our reality, and how that can often highlight a softness around the edges.

“I wrote this one when I had a concussion. I felt terrible and was in a deep brain fog but it came out pretty quickly. I don’t always write songs that are this literal but more broadly this one deals with struggling to relate,” Mendez explains.

While this is technically Mendez’s third full-length album, his back catalog boasts an extensive range of EPs and live recordings. He’s a prolific and thoughtful songwriter, understanding the joy in impulse, and shying away from the clinical sheen of overproduction.

Greg Mendez was written in fragments, some stretching across more than a decade, with Mendez reworking old ideas and arrangements, and others blossoming much more recently. The weight of time––and perhaps the anxiety in running out of it––clouds the album, as Mendez prods at some painful experiences from his childhood and early adulthood. The common thread connecting the characters is their evident imperfections, and the various degrees of damage they cause, both knowingly and unknowingly. But where do we draw the line between a good person and a bad person? For Mendez, it’s never been that easy. 

“There’s a lot of pretty bleak memories in the songs but one thing that I hope comes through is that nothing is ever fully dark,” he explains. While recognizing the severity of certain situations, Mendez is also careful to showcase the absurdity of our reality, and how that can often highlight a softness around the edges. The album’s artwork: a Virgin Mary staring at Mendez’s name, is a smirk at the serious, where earnesty can still be encouraged, and the light and the dark can effortlessly co-exist.