Avant-garde pop innovator alexmaax confronts a traumatic breakup on new single "Bruises"

The moniker of songwriter and producer Max Hershenow (MS MR, Post Precious) as alexmaax he adds vocalist to his repetoire. A classically trained dancer too, Hershenow's first single "Bets Off" marked his arrival as a fearless queer voice and artist in his own right.

"The song is basically a plea to my own psyche to finally let me free," Hershenow explains. As the sole visionary behind his independent new project Hershenow is able to control every element of his work, this is especially relevant with regards to his stunning music videos. Co-directing the clip for "Bruises" it's offers a vista of a cult-like fantasy shot in the hills above LA.

Hershenow explains "my main references were Shirin Neshat's Tooba and Ohad Naharin's Decadance, neither of which you can find in full online but they're incredible, and I was also really inspired by Aldous Harding and Solange's videos."

Musically Hershenow's inspirations favour the bold, ever-evolving worlds which ANONHI and Perfume Genius create and curate. Hershenow's evolution from synth-pop dabbler to expermentalist is certainly one which is set to continue as the scope of his ambition becomes clearer.

"It's been a truly wild process learning how to use my voice... developing my own project has always been a dream that I didn't know how to work towards because I was terrified of my own singing voice."

"But once I allowed myself to start exploring it, I realised I had this whole world of things to say," he adds "I could use music to process my own feelings in the way I've always helped other people do. Which is totally liberating, but also means feeling more vulnerable and exposed than I've ever felt, which I guess was the reason it intrigued me in the first place – there's something really electric at the edge of my creative self."

In term of "Bruises" specifically "it's basically a song about trying to shake off the residual damage from a bad relationship," he tells me over email. "I wrote it a year after a traumatizing breakup, and it came from the frustration that I couldn’t seem to recover."

While recovery can be a long process, in this case, Hershenow has turned his journey into a breathtaking reminder that bruises will fade, eventually.