SPIDER releases debut EP, ‘C.O.A’
SPIDER
releases debut EP, ‘C.O.A’
Ft. new single ‘U GET HIGH / I GET NOTHING’ + more
“A cathartic anthem about accepting your head’s a mess sometimes, belted out with a massive chorus and scuzzy guitars. Can’t wait to hear more” – The Face
LISTEN to ‘C.O.A’
LISTEN to ‘U GET HIGH / I GET NOTHING’
One of the most exciting new artists of 2022, SPIDER introduces herself today with debut mixtape ‘C.O.A’. The ‘Coming Of Age’ themed project features new single ‘U GET HIGH / I GET NOTHING’ alongside viral tracks ‘Water Sign’, the anthemic breakup affirmation ‘I’M FINE! I’M GOOD! I’M PERFECT!’, and more from the 22-year-old one to watch.
‘C.O.A’ is a true statement of intent from SPIDER: an artist, producer, DIY visual artist & alt-pop prodigy whose intoxicating sound is bursting with ideas. The mixtape’s title is inspired by SPIDER’s unorthodox upbringing, in which rites of passage were white-washed and out of reach for girls like her. “Activities like drinking and partying are tagged as ‘coming of age’ when white kids do it but demonized when kids of colour do it,” comments SPIDER. “We deserve the right to experience our youth and find ourselves. ‘C.O.A’ is what that felt like for me, and my hope is that other people of colour will listen to it, hear a situation they’ve been through, and maybe it’ll become their own coming of age moment.”
Unflinching, universal but utterly unique, SPIDER’s own coming-of-age story started back in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght. Raised in a Nigerian-Catholic household, she struggled to fit into the gender roles or social expectations of a first-generation immigrant family. Banned from going to gigs IRL, SPIDER instead found community online; running pop band stan accounts and, through her growing obsession with digital fan culture, witnessing the connective possibilities of making music in her own voice. Drawn to the cathartic confessionals of early Halsey, the generational soundtracks of Lorde, or the left-field vibrancy of M.I.A, SPIDER moved to London aged 18 to forge a path in music. She felt compelled to produce her own work, too, having quickly encountered the racial pigeonholing of male producers who took one look at her and assumed she’d be there to make R&B. Rather, SPIDER’s sonic web on ‘C.O.A’ is something altogether weirder, assimilating threads of emo, electronica, bedroom pop and punk into her own misadventures of modern, genuinely-multicultural youth.
Fittingly for someone who spent such formative teen years actually stuck online, SPIDER first came to wider attention in the pandemic, when ‘C.O.A’ highlight ‘Water Sign’ blew up on TikTok in late 2021. An astrological role-reversal for assumed weakness, the track was partly inspired by Olokun – the androgynous Nigerian deity who rules at the bottom of the ocean – and further previewed the colourful world of ‘C.O.A’. In part based on those depressing lockdown-birthdays, ‘IM FINE! I’M GOOD! I’M PERFECT!” is a seemingly playful banger that’s actually about the thin line between denial and accountability in the fallout of a relationship. But even for those whose coming of age is stalled by the pandemic, there’s the potential for growth: new single ‘U GET HIGH / I GET NOTHING’ is a powerfully honest account of toxic love, the self-delusion of desire, but also the realisation for SPIDER “that your lack of boundaries comes directly from an intense need for validation.”
Learning lessons from the past – and finding wisdom in the least likely of places – also underpins SPIDER’s alias. In lockdown she began to notice an alarming number of spiders in her bedroom, an initial panic which instead adopted a deeper, more magical meaning. Having grown up around African spirituality and folklore, for SPIDER these visitors came to represent the spirit of creation (in several traditions, she’s the totemic symbol of strong feminine creative energy, which arrives just when you need power the most). It was the wakeup call SPIDER needed, and an energy she channels through ‘C.O.A’: a raw but formidable body of work about earning your right to come of age, and fighting for the freedom to fuck up just like anybody else. Ultimately manifesting the ancient belief that only you can weave your future, SPIDER already looks like a new kind of future for Pop.
COA artwork