Like many troubled artists who reside in their very own inventive zip code, Drew Stroik deserved higher than an obscure drug-related loss of life at age 35. Grime poor, battling substance abuse and melancholy and dwelling in Pueblo, Colo., he handed away in 2022 after taking a fentanyl-laced capsule, abandoning greater than 100 unreleased songs, together with “Wash And Repeat.”
Stroik was keenly conscious of his expertise, and but he nonetheless referred to his music as “generic.” Actually, it’s something however. The Chicago native’s intimate lo-fi pop is masterful in the way in which it makes its imperfections an enthralling conduit for humanity’s myriad flaws. Working solely with a low-end Yamaha keyboard and a guitar, Stroik started cranking out demos and emailing them to everybody who impressed him.
Ivy’s Andy Chase was one of many few who responded—and he was impressed. He signed a 23-year-old Stroik to his Unfiltered label, setting him up with longtime buddy and collaborator Bruce Driscoll. Over the winter of 2010, Stroik spent weekends re-creating and honing his demos in Driscoll’s tiny studio house on New York’s Higher East Aspect. With Chase serving to with manufacturing and mixing, a debut album started to take form.
Inside months, nevertheless, Stroik’s private points derailed the challenge, and the label severed ties with him. Chase did return the unfinished tracks to Stroik, however nothing was ever launched. For the following decade, Stroik primarily vanished.
“When Drew handed away, this music risked being misplaced to time on a tough drive—however Andy and I couldn’t let that occur,” says Driscoll of “Wash And Repeat,” the newest focus observe from the posthumous LP, sixty fifth And York. “Drew was a layered, insanely gifted man who typically had his darkish moments, however this observe is nothing however pleasure to me.”
The video for “Wash And Repeat” was shot at a laundromat simply down the road from Driscoll’s house. “With solely the gear I had on the time, we went there with my buddy Leah and filmed it,” says Driscoll. “Folks have been coming in to scrub their garments and have been completely unfazed, which solely added to its attraction. Drew might be shy, however I believe the end result displays the music completely. It seems like one thing you’d stumble throughout on MTV within the Nineteen Nineties.”
We’re proud to premiere Stroik’s “Wash And Repeat.” Search for sixty fifth And York (Unfiltered/Caveman Arts Society) on October 24. The brief movie Drew Stroik: Unknown Pop Wizard is about for launch someday subsequent yr.
—Hobart Rowland
