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Jan 23, 2025 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Armando Ribeiro

Bristol-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Jackson makes forward-thinking electronic rock under the moniker Einsam, debuting with his 2021 EP, Samantics. Last year, Jackson returned with a series of new singles, “Something Happened,” “Fill Your Boots (More Life),” and “Motivation.” All of the tracks will feature on Jackson’s forthcoming debut album, Actionism, which he is teasing throughout the upcoming year with new single releases. Today, Jackson is sharing another new single, “VOLO,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“VOLO” is a massive, imposing effort, lacing thrumming sub-bass, chilly keys, and pounding drums together into a towering electronic march. After a rumbling intro, the track brings moody grooves and digitized vocal tones to the forefront until the bass roars back in with the refrain, riding atop gigantic blaring synths. The results sound cinematic and even sinister at points as if the track is meant to soundtrack scenes from a cyberpunk dystopia. Yet, it also has catchy hooks embedded in the knotted melodies, leaving the track with an undercurrent of vibrant pop bombast.

Jackson says of the track, “I was set off by Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation, which is Kaufman making a film directly about his own struggle to make a film. The fun challenge was locating this moment of helplessness and inability to do and articulating it.

Whether or not they arrive first, the words of the song always take precedence. The songs are primarily centred around corporeality; the world as experienced through the body. Then the aim is to build a fitting sound world for the subject matter. For ‘VOLO’ there was a lot of focus on the undercurrent of the music to match the interiority of the text.

Towards the end of the documentary Still Bill, Bill Withers quotes Thoreau when asked why, after such a prolific start to his music career, he hadn’t released anything for so long: ‘The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.’ I often wondered what it would be like if that desperation got a bit louder.’That’s pretty much exactly the feeling I was reaching to articulate here.”

Check out the song below, out everywhere tomorrow, January 24th.