UK indie-rock act Blaenavon broke up earlier this year, but frontman Ben Gregory has re-entered the fray as a solo act. His debut solo single is the seven-minute epic “deathbed hangover,” a careening yet undeniably gorgeous track produced alongside Blaine Harrison of Mystery Jets and engineer Matt Twaites.

Written in the wake of his receiving treatment in psychiatric hospitals, “‘deathbed hangover’ is about the self-destructive tendency of total immersion in entertainment,” Gregory says.

He adds:

My brain has the consistency of mushy peas because my telephone is so seductive. I tried to play this against more traditional fears of aggressive technological expansion: communities moving underground in a Wellsian nightmare. The laptop-screen light is our never-setting sun, which I think is accidentally a Mr. Burns reference. I recorded this song during lockdown after hard-binging Watchmen (2019) and finding Reznor/Ross’ soundtrack overwhelmingly beautiful. I hope I referenced some of that in a decent light. (Bear in mind I am just a guitarist randomly mashing computer keys.) Interesting fact: The demo of this song was always labelled “(unmixable version).” I like to think the original chaos carries through, but Blaine (Producer) and Matt (Engineer, Mixer) managed to make a version that verges on listenable.

Listen to “deathbed hangover” below.