Kirin J Callinan has released a new single from his upcoming album If I Could Sing. “Eternally Hateful” is an ’80s-style synth-rock jam, the kind that is perfect for his bravado-filled style.
“Musically, it could not be more simple,” Kirin says. “Three chords. A. E. B. IV-I-V. Over n over n over again, eternally. Hate, on the other hand, is a far more complex idea. Distressing, tbh. Destructive. Embarrassing. But no more so than Love. A resentful rage, a bitter overflow, a pointed supervex; forged from hurt, seeping from a seething heart, desperate to heal, by any means available, finding validity in anger, making sense of its pain, thin air turn to rage, some other type of cage. ‘You don’t know what love means anyway… Eternally Hateful! I hate you. I love you. And so on and so forth.’”
The song comes with typically bonkers video, directed by Isaac Brown, that puts Kirin in Medieval times — the era, not the theme restaurant — where he has been taken prison and is repeatedly tortured. Kirin is hung, drawn and quartered, also beheaded (spoiler alert!), but never stops singing.
Here’s Kirin’s introduction to the video: “What you’re about to witness is by far the most ambitious video project I’ve ever had the dis-ease, dis-comfort & dis-gust to have ever been involved with. It’s all entirely real. All of it. And it’s a miracle that I’m still here, alive today. Not only did the shooting of Eternally Hateful involve showing up to locations that none of us had ever been, to shoot things none of us had ever shot, without permission nor any other lawful, moral or divine right to do so (a scenario I have had more than some experience with before, to be perfectly honest); it was Isaac’s vision and the nature of this specific shoot ~ it’s scope, it’s impossibility, and it’s high potential for disaster &/or death ~ that was the most insane, most intoxicating & most appealing aspect of the idea to begin with. I hope you are as engaged and inspired watching this clip as I was ~ literally & figuratively ~ pushed, pulled & all round tortured making it.”
Is Kirin also naked in this video? Watch through to the end credits below.
If I Could Sing “is rumored to be released any minute now,” so keep your eyes peeled.
