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Don Lifted announces 325i album, shares tender “Brain Fluid”
After a collection of singles announcing his signing to Fat Possum, Lawrence Matthews aka Don Lifted, is announcing his first record for the venerable label, 325i. The lead single, “Brain Fluid”, premiering today at FLOOD Magazine, is a tender portrait of intimacy, where Matthews is depicted as a distant viewer, unable to achieve his own connection. It’s set to a backdrop of introspective guitar and watery synths, a pulsing kick drum keeping time while Matthew’s deep voice repeats “I been waiting for a sign in the night..”
It’s another singular work from the genre bending artist, who’s work as a painter and photographer has made him an artist to watch in Memphis, and his role as program director at the non-profit Tone has made him a role model to aspiring black youth. In his own words –
“The visuals’ main themes are desire, vulnerability, and sanctuary in connection to space or a partner within a space but also my longing for a shared experience… A partner I do not have, a moment I haven’t shared, a life I haven’t been able to live. I only appear as a specter. A haunting voyeuristic figure that cannot interact but only watch as others live and love as their truest selves.
The visual features an all queer cast and for reference we spent a lot of time with the work of Deana Lawson, Clifford Prince King and Jarvis Boyland among others to really tap into these ideas and themes in relation to my shared experience or lack there of.”