Cherryade’s new single—premiering below—is a deep-fried takedown of “Fast Food” and fake news, and it’s just as greasy and addicting as its namesake.
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“‘Fast Food’ was written about everything going on in the world right now—fast food culture, COVID, politics, fake news, spending our lives on social media… basically everything falling apart,” says Ella, one half of the London alt pop duo (neither Ella nor bandmate Alex give their full names).
“This year feels so intense and fast paced, whether it’s music or memes or political scandals or celebrity ‘cancel culture’, trends get binned and replaced so quickly and it’s exhausting trying to keep up and stay sane.”
In “Fast Food,” Cherryade respond to that feeling of exhaustion by serving up sludgy, DIY electro-pop. “I don’t really need a new health kick,” Ella spits in the opening verse over fuzzy, droning beats, “I don’t really care / About that shit no / Fill me up with syrup and red pills / Feeling dead but / Lookin’ like 12 year olds.”
The lyrics only get more biting from there: “Tryna fill the void with pills / Or a tasty happy meal / Pour me out another diet cola / Imma sit here scrolling through life on my sofa / Blocking out the world in my self made coma.”
“We’re completely to blame as well,” says Alex, “as it’s impossible not to get caught up in it all. So the song is hypocritical but it’s brutally honest… it’s us laying it all out there to vent and try to make sense of this year.”
“Fast Food” comes on the heels of the duo’s latest singles—“Stick!” and “Only Fan”—as well as their recent Sinking Ship EP. The track will also appear on a forthcoming lockdown mixtape, which Alex and Ella consider their most raw collection to date.
“Making this mixtape was a bit of a release for us,” says Alex. “We’d been stuck on lockdown together for a few weeks and had been writing a lot of k-pop for pitching, which was fun but really exhausting. There was a global pandemic going on around us and we were sat there making this fun, super energetic pop, and mentally it just wasn’t where we were. So we needed to write this project. It’s gritty and raw and rough around the edges, but it feels like the most ‘us’ out of everything we’ve released so far.”
The duo cite M.I.A., Lil’ Kim, and South Park as influences, and you can hear why in “Fast Food.” Check out the grimy, tongue-in-cheek banger below.
“Fast Food” is out November 17.
