WATCH: Madi Diaz - 'Nervous'

Quickly, I wanted to say thanks for all the birthday love. You're genuinely all the best. After a whole bunch of Sunday night procrastination / Monday morning anticipation, I'm staring at my list of potential posts in search of something to write about. It often feels a little 'kid in a sweet shop' when I do that - there's so much I want to share, so much good music being released right now. LUMP are back, there's a brilliant debut EP from my pal Cj Pandit, a new track from the upcoming Dizzy EP, new Matilda Mann and sooooo much more to revel in. 

I've settled (very happily) on one of my favourite releases from the past week, the latest tune from Madi Diaz. The Nashville-based artist follows recent singles New Person, Old Place and Man In Me with Nervous, her third single for ANTI- Records. A song about recognising unhealthy coping mechanisms in yourself, I think it's my favourite of the trio - from the hypnotic guitar lines to Madi's vocals dancing back and forth across them, I'm loving everything about this. The video (below) was shot in Nashville and directed by Jordan Bellamy - inspired by and including a homage to the final scene of Andrei Tarkovsky's film The Stalker. 

On the track, Madi shares: "You know when you hold a mirror up to a mirror and you get an infinite amount of reflections from every angle? That's what 'Nervous' is about. It's when you're in a loop of looking at yourself from every vantage point until you're caught up in your own tangled web of bullshit. It's about catching yourself acting out your crazy and you're finally self-aware enough to see it, but you're still out of your body enough and curious enough to watch yourself do it."

Follow Madi Diaz - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

WATCH: Madi Diaz - 'Man In Me'

While I love spreading the word when a favourite artist of mine releases something new, there's something particularly exciting about sharing an artist to the blog for the first time. They might become one of my favourites, or somebody chancing across the post might listen and discover a new musical love. The possibilities are endless and the excitement palpable. Today, that artist is Madi Diaz. After somewhat of a musical restart, the Nashville-based artist is back with her debut single for ANTI Records, Man In Me, produced by Diaz herself with additional production from Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver.) 

Born and raised in Pennsylvania surrounded by an incredibly musical family, Madi moved to Philadelphia to have closer access to a broader music education, enrolling at (and subsequently dropping out of) Berklee College of Music before moving to Nashville to focus on being a songwriter. An LA move, a break-up and a return to Nashville later, she found herself writing over 100 songs in a couple of years, including this one. With so much songwriting experience under her belt, you're in pretty safe hands with this gorgeous new track. 

Madi shares that "'Man In Me’ was the first song I sat down to record for myself in about six years, which is the reason I thought it was so important to release first. It’s a very intimately visceral moment, a sort of play-by-play inner monologue, taking my first steps through a really hard time." The video, directed by Stephen Kinigopoulos, she shares, "emphasizes the intensity of a moment held and held and held. For me, this video is like holding a stare for so long that it hurts. It's like knowing you should let go, but you keep holding on cause you can't say ‘when,’ and playing with that tension lying right beneath the surface. You know something's up, but you just can't put your finger on it.”

Follow Madi Diaz - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.