This is rock like you’ve never seen before.
“Parasite” is the latest single from the New York City-based artist Miss Cherry Delight. Delight told amNewYork that the song dives into the feelings of inadequacy and what it sounds like when your inner voice agrees with the negative things that are being said about you.
“Parasite is a four-year labor of love about what self-sabotage does to the psyche, what happens when you are out of your element in an environment where you aren’t valued or seen, and what happens when you begin to believe the words of people who don’t know you,” said Delight.
The song was written by Delight and Justin Mathews, who has frequently collaborated with Delight over the years, including her tracks “Cherry Blood” and “Eat the Evidence.” Mathews says that the song came about when both he and Delight were trying to shake off the post-pandemic haze they were in.
“We started a long time ago and it was a really slow-going process and not just because of finding time, but also because I think that we were sort of shaking off the sort of being stuck and trapped in pandemic feeling,” said Mathews.
“It is a song about self-sabotage, what it feels like when you cannot trust yourself to make the right decisions. What it feels like when you let down your loved ones or when you let down your coworkers, or when you let down anyone, the feeling of severely punishing yourself for things on the outside that may not seem so big to someone else, but are big to you because you expect a lot from yourself,” said Delight.
Having worked with Delight before, Mathews said that they both wanted to “up the ante” with “Parasite,” both in terms of subject matter and in production quality.
“I think you can hear in Parasite that there’s a little more depth to the music, and we also were lucky enough to be able to get our live drummer, Jerad Lippi. We were able to record him and get him on the track and on a few of the other songs, we were able to get live drums, which, you know, in today’s like mini budget world, that’s kind of a cool thing to just do a more traditional rock record,” said Mathews. “I really like that on the new record, and especially on ‘Parasite,’ that I was able to play around with some kind of heavy production techniques that I haven’t been able to do with Cherry in the past. So I’m pretty excited for it to be released.”
The music video for “Parasite” is set to officially premiere on Fangoria, a horror-based publication, on Feb. 13. Directed by Brooklyn filmmaker and musician Dylan Mars Greenberg, the music video for “Parasite” was shot entirely in Brooklyn and features a number of live bugs. (No bugs were harmed in the making of the video).
“Cherry came in with a really strong concept, so it was my job to bring it to life with the technical side of lighting and camera work and location,” said Greenberg. “I knew we had to have a really strong location, and this place, Gymnopedie, which was run by my associate Andrew, I realized would be the absolute perfect location. It has since been shut down, so I think it’s a really great time capsule of that place.”
Delight noted that the Fangoria team said that the video for “Parasite” was unlike anything they had seen before.
“I love that these people who have seen it all said that my video is so gross, and not only did they want to feature it through the website, they also wanted to ask me about the behind-the-scenes of how we made it,” said Delight.
The timing of the premiere is no coincidence, Delight told amNewYork. The date is not only Friday the 13th, but also right before Valentine’s Day, with both days holding a special place in Delight’s heart.
“A Friday the 13th in February is a special occurrence, and having it the day before Valentine’s Day is a perfect merge for my aesthetic. But the main reason I picked this as the release date is because the first Black Sabbath album dropped Friday, Feb. 13th, 1970. So this one’s for Ozzy,” said Delight.
In addition to the online premiere, live audiences will be able to watch the music video at Videodome, a monthly short-film event hosted by Greenberg. The event will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12 at Rubulad in Bushwick.
“The timing worked out really well because Cherry wanted to launch the video around Valentine’s Day, and my event Video Dome is always home to offbeat and strange new films and videos, so I felt that it would be a great opportunity to showcase to a live audience the day before it goes online,” said Greenberg.
Both Delight and Mathews hope that the song will have a profound impact on those who give it a listen.
“I think that this song represents a sort of slice of life at a really dark time, and again, not just like what was going on with the world, but I think she and I both had a pretty strong profound kind of negative reaction, maybe more than most, to being confined, to just having to hit pause on everything,” said Mathews.
“It is my hope that this gives catharsis to everyone who was ever told they weren’t good enough, and had a weak moment where they were terrified that it might be true,” said Delight.
“Parasite” is available for pre-save on Spotify.
