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Aug 31, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Chicago synth pop outfit Safety Town, the moniker of singer/songwriter Jackson Davis, has been quietly experimenting for years, shaping his DIY instincts and love for warm analog synths into a debut album, Fake It. Though Davis has had stints playing in local Chicago acts, Fake It finds him largely solo, without a recording studio or almost any guest musicians. He meticulously fits together layers of programs beats and modular synths, shaping them into a puzzle-like whole. Davis last shared his debut single from the record, “Bloom,” and today he’s back with his follow-up, “Fake It,” premiering early with Under the Radar.

“Fake It,” the title track of the upcoming album, is emblematic of the synth pop delights Davis offers, featuring interlocking drum machine beats, soft and sweet vocals, and a dizzying array of synth textures. As Davis describes, “This song was very inspired by my experimentation with the 4MS Ensemble Oscillator as well as the melodic sensibilities of bands like New Order.”

In one of the record’s few guest contributions, Davis also brings in Duncan Reilly of Cairns on guitar, adding a handful of swelling guitar touches and a climactic solo to bring the song to a close. The result recalls both early aughts synth pop touchstones like The Postal Service and the genre’s ‘80s pioneers, combining uplifting melodicism with an underlying sense of melancholic nostalgia.

That nostalgia was a very intentional choice for Davis. As he explains, “I started the song late one night after wasting time scrolling through social media, and just seeing some of the wild things people I’ve known from high school or whatever are up to now. I think a lot about how many phases of life we live and how radically they shift if you compare yourself now to like 10 years ago. While change can be a major positive, I did want to reflect on the bittersweet nostalgia we get when thinking about these sorts of things. I tried to keep the song in that vein, where the music sounds uplifting mostly with some slight dissonance, while the lyrics are more somber.”

He continues by saying, “I want people to realize that change is necessary and ok. While the world is constantly evolving, there is no inherent rhyme or reason to it and we as individuals are the ones who decide how we think about this change. Sometimes it can be encouraging and positive, other times very negative and our choice really is to just have to push it out of our minds and focus on the positive aspects.”

Check out the song early below and watch for the full Fake It LP, due out November 12th via Earth Libraries.