New Jersey-based indie singer-songwriter, King Leer, is back with a new sickly-sweet tune, “The Garden.” Always full of gorgeous contradiction, this artist is definitely one to check out if you’re feeling all mixed up about something…or someone. Or, if you like to have a soundtrack while you get in your feelings– King Leer’s music is a good outlet for that, too.
In addition, King Leer commemorated the release of “The Garden” with an immersive new music video, which is now available to stream on YouTube. It’s honestly quite beautiful and worth checking out.
Go ahead– go get lost in ‘The Garden’ for a while:
The music video for this new King Leer song is a gorgeous, kaleidoscopic scrapbook. It combines the intimacy of a photo album with the vastness of endless countryside. As the video plays out, different views of the artist performing his new song are pieced between natural sights–trees, blooms, fields… you name it.
The video presents a picturesque view into what summer is like in our best day dreams, complemented perfectly by King Leer’s pleasant vocals and dutiful acoustic stylings.
It’s beautiful–and, at times, almost hypnotic.
Overall, the music video for “The Garden” is a delightful experience, and we recommend checking it out–even if you aren’t already a fan of King Leer, or typically don’t like this kind of guitar music.
Get to Know King Leer
“King Leer allows me to kind of get a little more. I don’t know… abstract? And a little more nebulous… [and] more intimate [than with Saint Slumber].”
– Joshua Perna
Wait, don’t you mean King ‘Lear’, like the play?
Not exactly–
The deep lore that MendoWerks has learned about Joshua Perna over the years tells us that the moniker King ‘Leer’ came from the leering stare that the man behind the music was known for when he took to the stage during some earlier musical endeavors.
While some of these earlier projects fell to the wayside, taking on King Leer as an artist persona has allowed Perna an outlet for work that doesn’t quite fit the specific musical vision that his dark-pop-/alternative inspired project, Saint Slumber, demands.
If you want to know more about this journey, check out this interview we conducted with King Leer last year.
A King’s Backstory:
“Born beneath the looming shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the skyscrapers of New York City, King Leer is an artist with conflict in his very DNA.
King Leer, born Joshua Perna, imbues the deep contrast of both his Appalachian and metropolitan surroundings into his indie music. Borrowing the acoustic folk aesthetic of deep-woods revival meetings, darkening it with the slick, modern production of city studios and clubs, King Leer creates a musical experience unlike any other: intimate, whispering vocals and fingerpicked acoustic guitar, shrouded with a dark ambience and melancholy, coming to life in an explosive live show.
As a songwriter and producer, King Leer has amassed tens of millions of streams for projects multiple genres and sounds. Following in the tradition of singer-songwriters such as Sufjan Stevens, Hozier, Ben Howard, and Phoebe Bridgers, King Leer is now working on his debut solo record.”
King Leer artist biography (c) Kingless Co.
So…where’s the rest of the music?
Rumor has it that a full King Leer album may be due later on this year–but if you’re dying for some more tunes that’ll tug at your heart strings, you might want to check out King Leer’s 2021 bop, “cellophane”…
Or, of course, you could keep streaming “The Garden” like we have been all week! Your choice.
Keep in touch with King Leer.
YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Website
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