Picture yourself on a boulevard paved with daydreamers, sipping your coffee as the world ambles by. Here, you play a solitary game of “Never Have I Ever,” your thoughts drifting like autumn leaves scraping the cobblestones as time contracts and diolates. In this city of strangers, you ponder your choices, the paths taken, and those left unexplored. Each question is a silent musing, pushing that metaphorical rock up the hill like Sisyphus, finding solace in the absurdist comedy of life. Such is the kind of ponderance that is the new single “New Have I Ever.”
“There is a joy to be found in accepting how pointless things are,” muses Chaz Costello of Dallas-based post-punk ensemble Sculpture Club. “Nothing matters” leads you down a road. Despair is the first stop for many of us but if you keep going you end up at absurdity. You can look back and realize how silly and absolutely ridiculous things are. I ebb and flow between the two, like most of us. But this song is my representation of the latter and the power I’ve found in it. Plus the joy and humor of being the last of a family name.”
Sculpture Club carved their niche with a party-punk spirit that shimmered like stardust, delivering performances that glittered with a raw, unfiltered energy. In the dimly lit venues of Salt Lake City and Dallas, their shows erupted in confetti and chaos, a dazzling display of rock ‘n’ roll bravado that seared itself into the memories of those who witnessed it. This audacious approach became their hallmark, defining a style that was both fearless and uniquely theirs, laying the groundwork for their evolution and growth.
Amid the tempest of creativity that defines the life of a musician, Chaz Costello of Sculpture Club navigates with a fervent dedication that borders on the obsessive. His reflections reveal a tunnel vision, an all-consuming focus that blurs the world beyond the music. In this storm of creation, Costello’s existence becomes inseparable from his art, his very essence channeled into every note and lyric. This relentless drive compels him to confront the shadows of his own identity, to ponder what parts of himself might have been eclipsed by his unwavering devotion to the craft.
Expressing these aspects of Costello is the video for “Never Have I Ever,” a reverie that oscillates between solitary scenes of someone lost in a private world—jamming, bed rotting, doomscrolling—and the communal energy of a live performance. This stark juxtaposition illuminates the chasm between the isolation of one’s room and the shared euphoria of the stage. In one moment, there’s the dream of standing in the spotlight, enveloped in camaraderie; in another, the ritual of applying makeup, a preparatory act laden with hope. At its core, the video underscores a profound longing to bridge the gap through music, to transform solitary reverie into collective experience.
Watch below:
Sculpture Club’s S/T LP is out June 14, 2024, via Born Losers Records. Pre-order the vinyl copy via Born Losers here:
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