Whitby’s Chastity release soaring new single and video ‘Somersault’

Upcoming third album ‘Suffer Summer’ features collab with Dallas Green of City & Colour and Alexisonfire

TORONTO, ON, Oct. 28, 2021 – Last night, Chastity, a band based in Whitby released their new shimmering single and accompanying video, “Somersault.” As the singer/songwriter of Chastity, Whitby’s Brandon Williams is preparing the release of his new album Suffer Summer via Dine Alone Records and Deathwish in early 2022, he has unveiled another standout single from the album — the slick, soaring track “Somersault.”  

WATCH: Chastity’s “Somersault” on YouTube

The track premiered yesterday alongside a poignant and well-timed new music video. Of the video, Williams says: “The first video put out for the trilogy was for “Children”, based off a true story of police brutality in my town. In one of the final videos for it now, I wanted to make sure the gap was closed and the cop got what was coming. Trying to make a dream feel real.”  He continues, “This is a song about the apocalypse, with lyrics written before this current apocalypse began. It’s about finding a better world hidden away in your room, or some place safe.”

Brandon Williams makes resonant songs that capture isolation and resilience. As the songwriter behind Chastity, the Whitby, Ontario musician has made three unrelentingly perceptive albums culminating in the cathartic new Suffer Summer. Suffer Summer caps off an album trilogy that showcases both Williams’ emotional range as a lyricist but also his boundless love of outsider music. His 2018 debut Death Lust pulled from Unwound and The Smashing Pumpkins as he grappled with mortality while 2019’s Home Made Satan dealt in world-weary anxiety and Hum-like atmospherics. But Suffer Summer is a meditation on happiness, channelled through powerhouse riffs and undeniably potent choruses, sung with Mineral and Jimmy Eat World worn on his sleeve. It’s an album that shows how healing and staying content is hard but necessary work.

Williams mostly wrote Suffer Summer throughout 2019 while he and his band joined acts like Fucked Up, DIIV, and Alexisonfire on tour. It was a fruitful and exciting period for Williams, who whittled down 24 new tracks to 10, taking several new creative leaps while penning these songs. For any artist, taking risks, trusting your intuition, and relinquishing control is a delicate balance but for these songs, Williams knew he needed to step out of his comfort zone by making his writing more collaborative. He enlisted one of Chastity’s earliest and most vocal supporters PUP frontman Stefan Babcock to co-write opener single “Real World” and LP highlight “When You Go Home I Withdrawal.” Alexisonfire and City and Colour’s Dallas Green appears as a guest vocalist on “Vicious Circle,” the emotional centerpiece of Suffer Summer. 

Chastity started as a way for Williams to find community in his suffocating and isolating suburban life, his songs serving as an outstretched hand for the like-minded people on the fringes. Suffer Summer is both a validation and comfort that while the world might be irrevocably damaged, you’re not alone.

Chastity – Suffer Summer out early 2022 – Tracklist

1. Real World
2. Pummeling
3. Dying To Live
4. When You Go Home I Withdrawal
5. The Barbed Wire Fence Around Happiness
6. Somersault
7. Happy Face
8. Overstimulate
9. Vicious Circle Feat. Dallas Green
10. Smiling

Chastity’s “Somersault” is out now on Dine Alone Records and Deathwish. It is available here.
Suffer Summer is out January 13th. It is available for pre-order here.

by Conor Mackie

lead photo by Jesse Herzog

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