It's a new day! IAN SWEET  - the musical project of Jilian Medford - has officially announced her first album for Polyvinyl, Show Me How You Disappear, out March 5. Mesmeric and kaleidoscopic, shimmering with electrified unease, Show Me How You Disappear is both an exercise in self-forgiveness and an eventual understanding of unresolved trauma. Pre-order your Early Bird copy now on white & silver mix limited to 300. Listen to new single "Drink The Lake," accompanied by a self-directed music video. 

The cyclical nature of obsessive thought patterns shapes Show Me How You Disappear. It's self-referential, each song in conversation with one another, tracing the same relationship and the desire to be an escape artist from your own life. But there's also the repetition Medford learned to help herself via Emotional Freedom Technique tapping, which involves tapping pressure points on the body and repeating mantras to curb anxiety. Reciting mantras is a form of teaching — leaning into the repetition, retraining your brain, learning new realities. 

This is immediate in "Drink The Lake," a track that “taps into my own twisted logic to try and break away from obsessive thought patterns,” Medford explains. “It turned into a pop anthem of seemingly silly ways to try and forget someone, like saying their name backwards, but I feel these devices contributed to my healing.” 

Medford's third record as IAN SWEET unfolds at an acute juncture in her life, charting from a mental health crisis to an intensive healing process and what comes after. How do you control the thoughts that control you? What does it mean to get better? What does it mean to have a relationship with yourself?

The inklings for the record began slowly. In 2018, Medford wrote  "Dumb Driver" on an acoustic guitar while living in a “hobbit hole” back house in Los Angeles, with "Power" emerging after. Mentally she was in a dark place. By January 2020, following increasingly severe panic attacks, Medford began a two-month intensive outpatient program, including six-hour days of therapy. It yielded an unprecedented level of self-reflection for Medford, who already plumbs the depths of her emotions for her songwriting. She took a step back from music to completely immerse herself in the program, and once she felt ready to move on at the end of February, the rest of the songs poured out of her.

Recorded with Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Empress Of) and Andy Seltzer (Maggie Rogers), among others, Medford approached this album as a curator. She handpicked the producers that fit each song, which explains the range and experimentation showcased. Medford then recruited Chris Coady to mix and tie everything together into one cohesive piece. The resulting record envelops both Medford and the listener like water: its ebb and flow, the ease with which it can switch from nourishing to endangering you. Fully immersive, with guitar lines as quick to sound grungy as they are to ascend to astral distortion, it's a lush cacophony of experimentation. While writing the record, Medford revisited the discography of her forever favorite band, Coldplay and noted inspiration from Young Thug's bizarre and magical vocal delivery. With these influences and many more, Medford's pop melodies are inverted by the freak world she builds around them.

Dizzying and enthralling, Show Me How You Disappear is the sound of someone coming apart and putting themselves back together — the moment an old mantra, repeated into the mirror time and time again, finally clicks. To look at your reflection, and finally feel seen.