Supermilk - Death Is the Best Thing for You Now (2020)

Supermilk, the recording project of former Doe drummer Jake Popyura. After the amicable split of London based indie-rock trio Doe in 2019, drummer/vocalist Jake Popyura initially breathed a tearful but welcome sigh of relief, imagining the split would allow him to take some time off from music and focus on other facets of adult life. However, this musical hiatus didn’t last long. Having just bought an old 4-track recorder on a whim, Popyura set himself a goal to justify the purchase: to write and record a full album with no pressure, no expectations and no outside opinions or involvement. What emerged was ‘Death Is the Best Thing for You Now’, the title a nod to his favourite movie Freaked (Alex Winter & Tom Stern, 1993).

Popyura set to work demoing the record whilst binge-watching all three seasons of Netflix female wrestling comedy-drama GLOW, which may or may not have had some influence on the subsequent albums’ central themes. “The album was recorded on an industrial estate in Watford where I survived mostly on coffee and pasties from a petrol station across the road. I performed, recorded and mixed the whole thing myself in relative secrecy, my only interactions being with the owner of the studio who I don’t think liked me very much.”

Lyrically, the record features three primary themes: death, male entitlement and death as a result of male entitlement. The result is an ambitious and varied effort encompassing elements of indie, post-punk and pop of the 80s and 90s, but also drawing on many contemporary influences such as Speedy Ortiz, Jay Som and Omni.