BRISTON MARONEY - SKYDIVER
Kenzie Gay - @kenzwrites
Everybody, even the weirdos who “don’t like” music, has that one artist that they have a soft spot for. That one artist that they found during an odd time in life yet they still find themselves listening even now because they hold the music so close. For me, that artist is Briston Maroney.
Not to be that guy, but I discovered Maroney very early on in their career, specifically when I was just shy of ten years old and watching American Idol’s thirteenth season. I grew up watching the show and this was the time when I really started to have favorites that weren’t just piggybacking off of my family members’ and something just clicked when 15 year old Briston showed up on screen to play You Can’t Always Get What You Want, originally done by the great Rolling Stones. They were obviously still young and just stepping into their career at the time but it stuck with me in some way.
Life continued on and I eventually forgot about Maroney as I started middle school only to re-discover them in the seventh grade when their debut EP, Big Shot, was released. The collection of four songs labeled Maroney as an indie rock artist and they became my anthems: this time around, I remembered Maroney as they ventured on with phenomenal works such as Carnival, Indiana, and many more down the line.
Now, as I approach the age of 20, Maroney is kicking up even more. They dropped Ultrapure, their second full length album, in the fall of 2023 and now they’ve released their newest single: Skydiver.
Produced by Daniel Tashian, Skydiver is a song of great vulnerability. Within the last couple of years, Maroney has really taken the approach of wearing their heart on their sleeve in the form of song writing and this track is a large indication of that.
On Friday morning, the day the song was released to the masses, Maroney posted to Instagram with the statement: “SKYDIVER is out now! a massive win for the leaping out plane community!!! Truthfully I was really nervous to share this song, it’s a type of earnest I get scared to be within the music I share with other people. But hot damn!! not to be on the nose with it all but sometimes ya gotta take the damn leap and belt that shit out!! Thank you so much for yall’s openness to my constant sensitivity HAHA this song is meant to be a safe space for folks who wanna explore any feeling at full volume, hope ya take us up on it!!!” and that was all I needed to know before diving in (no pun intended).
The song kicks off with a whimsical sort of perspective instrumentally speaking, the main components being a medley of acoustic and electric guitars. This newer era of Maroney’s music, in great contrast to their previous works off of Sunflower (to which I am forever loyal to), possesses a softer edge that leans more towards folk than the alternative rock they started out with. This has been pretty recurring in all of the post-Ultrapure singles we as fans have received, and Skydiver is no different; its style is reminiscent of artists such as Flipturn, Mt. Joy, and Dominic Fike.
Since it is obviously the star of the song, I wanted to hone in on the lyrical content of Skydiver and boy, it did not disappoint. Much like many other musicians, Maroney likes to leave their lyrics up to listener interpretation: it would be no fun if they just laid out exactly what it’s about and/or how you’re supposed to feel as a listener. With that being established, I still felt a relation to some of the verses and I’m sure others did too. Specifically, the lines
“The days just pass me by like a bird without a song, skydiver with no sky. Ever since I was a boy: so anxious and misused. Never thought I'd see the sun from quite this point of view” (verse I) and “Like a dream I never had, from a broken breath I drew. Never thought I could be free: didn't want it to be true. Ever since I was a boy, so scared to be alive. Now I'm standing on the sun, living just to die” (verse II) really resonated with me.
Personally, I took this song’s meaning as something to do with a depressive episode or perhaps mental illness in itself; the feeling that you’re just going through the motions of life without necessarily living or being fulfilled.
Furthermore, some elements of the lyrics could suggest the idea of Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to an abusive or toxic situation: as someone who lived in that sort of environment for a very long time, the idea of being free from it can be terrifying because you’re so conditioned to that treatment. Maroney could be paying homage to this feeling as well but again, we may never know.
All in all, Skydiver is another magnificent work from the ever-brilliant Briston Maroney, labeling them as not only a great musician but also a poetic mind when it comes to writing. Words cannot describe how amped I am that they have come so far in their career and I can only hope that one day I get to work with them in some capacity.
If you’re looking for new music curated by a genuine person, then you don’t have to look any further because Briston checks all the boxes and then some. After the release of Skydiver, Maroney has quite the itinerary to complete. They have sets at several festivals such as Lollapalooza and All Things Go this summer along with a plethora of shows for the second leg of their Ultrapure tour this fall in cities like Grand Rapids (my first Briston show!!), St. Louis, New Haven, and many more.
Skydiver is available now on all streaming platforms along with the rest of Briston’s plentiful discography.
