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May 09, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Katka Genfeld

CJ’s Mirra Maze is the new project of London-based artist and composer CJ Mirra. Though Mirra’s work has previously stayed largely confined to the worlds of television and film, Mirra’s latest effort represents a new foray into lush psych pop, in the same vein as artists like Tame Impala and Toro Y Moi. Mirra debuted the project earlier this year with his first single, “Self Medicate,” and today he’s back with the track’s accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Self Medicate” is equal parts dreamy and catchy, offering a track replete with infectious hooks, warm melodies, and expansive synth beds. The track ebbs and flows as it winds onward, transitioning between meditative psychedelic interludes and crashing waves of bittersweet melancholia. Mirra crafts an evocative contrast of tones, balancing the track’s lush instrumental palette against its wistful lyricism, with neither element overwhelming the other. Lyrically, the track is inspired by addiction, but explores the topic from an unexpected angle. Mirra explains, “We all have the instinct to self-medicate with our addictions of choice, for me, it was filling the gap of finding a deeper sense of purpose.”

“I watched a film about a guy who taught himself to surf and immersed himself in everything around surfing to help him overcome addiction and depression,” he continues. “The water, the connection to nature, the meditative quality of waiting for the right conditions, the rush of getting the wave, the physicality - all combined to be powerful enough to change his life. That really made an impact and resonated with my own experiences in recent years.”

The track’s themes of searching and rebirth equally come out in the accompanying video, from award-winning director Simon Ellis. Ellis says of the video, “In a song where the vocals are so clear it seemed pointless spelling out what you can already hear just for the sake of technique - a tedious blight - and it made no sense to focus on any one nation by cherry-picking a random language. I opted for the neutrality of Esperanto (maybe Esperant-ish) which of course isn’t bound to a country and has a fascinating history. A created, universal language which most people don’t know, I find the paradox a bit mad and couldn’t resist employing it.

I often set up a fairly rigid visual system of some kind. It informs choices that would otherwise be swamped by endless possibility, gives the viewer something to journey with, and ensures a global glue across everything.

On this I divided the frame into ten equal vertical stripes, mainly utilizing the four middle ones to illustrate what I considered to be a particularly central sound. A structure unfolded from there, using combinations of the stripes for changing notes, plus occasional horizontal ones for higher frequency sounds that stand apart.”

Check out the song and video below, out everywhere now.