Photo by Aaron Spicer

In her tweet accompanying the release of “Heavy Voices”, the intro track and latest single from Eternal Summers leader Nicole Yun’s sophomore solo effort, Matter, she dedicates its music video “to all Asian Americans that have survived the last 3 years.” In it, Yun is stalked by the specter of racism in the form of a white male mannequin appearing behind her wherever she goes – a representation of the rise of hate and violence against the Asian community – with the listen itself being a vessel in processing the emotional burden of this being placed on their day to day. Yun far is from defeated, though, and instead of meeting that hate with an equal energy, she lends it all to supporting the fringe despite the track’s skidding riffs and surmounting crash. “Delivered as a joke / Cutting you down to a sizable or minimal / Remnant of a lethalized hoax / But it’s their hearts that broke,” she recognizes, and that’s what keeps her from breaking.

Directed by: Patrick Fitzgerald

Nicole Yun’s Matter will be released April 14th on Kanine Records.