IAN SWEET (Jilian Medford) shines on her latest single, “FIGHT.” The glittering track is from her work-in-progress EP, STAR STUFF, which Polyvinyl is releasing one track at a time.
Already slated to be the break-up song of the summer, “FIGHT” encapsulates the anger, grief and frustration of trying to fall out of love. The track continuously accelerates just to slam on the breaks, the intense build-ups mirroring the emotional rollercoaster of trying to navigate someone you love leaving. There’s a sense of desperation, and it seems like her hands are tied as she weighs her options of driving far or crashing the car.
Medford drew on her failed pandemic relationship when writing “FIGHT,” she says in a statement.
“Spending everyday with someone, doing everything together, not knowing if the world was going to end. Leaning on someone with such heaviness, putting our entire weight and being onto each other because it’s all we had,” Medford says. “The song plays into both the monotony of the relationship and the catastrophe that I went through after it ended. I felt so content in the relationship but then my entire world fell apart when it ended and I didn’t know how to pick myself back up and move forward.”
Medford and her longtime collaborator Lucy Sandler released a video to accompany the track. The duo filmed the video with their friends at Prime Time, a bar they frequent. Full of fluorescent lights, a disco ball, silver confetti and heart-shaped balloons, it feels like a celebration as their friends sing a karaoke version of “FIGHT.” It’s a moment of sheer catharsis as Medford has a Cinderella moment in the middle of the bar, her T-shirt transforming into a shimmering star outfit as she stage-dives off a table.
Medford also announced a North American tour which will kick off when she returns from Europe in May.
You can check out the video for “FIGHT” below along with IAN SWEET’s 2022 Paste session and complete list of tour dates.
IAN SWEET Tour Dates:
May
18 – Tilburg, NL @ Skatecafe
19 – Groningen, NL @ Vera
20 – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling
22 – Manchester, UK @ YES
23 – Glasgow, UK @ The Hug and Pint
25 – Liverpool, UK @ Zanzibar Club
26 – London, UK @ The Grace
28 – Bristol, UK @ Dot to Dot Festival
29 – Nottingham, UK @ Dot To Dot Festival
31 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
July
22-24 – Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
27 – New York, NY @ Baby’s All Right #
28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s #
29 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd #
31 – Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall #
August
01 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz #
02 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G #
04 – Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village #
05 – Milwaukee, WI @ Colectivo #
06 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry #
08 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge #
09 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar #
11 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge #
12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court #
14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar#
(# = w/ Bnny)
