If you needed another reason not to get on Karin Dreijer’s bad side, look no further than “Even It Out.” The deliciously venomous cut from Radical Romantics, their brand new third studio album as Fever Ray, comes with a music video that ups the ante considerably. “This is for Zacharias / Who bullied my kid in high school,” Dreijer sings, their voice pulsing with an anger that’s crossed over into deranged ecstasy. “There’s no room for you / And we know where you live.” The song’s disturbing nature is belied by its ultra-catchiness, its anthemic and arena-ready instrumental, and the woo-hoos Dreijer injects into the track at key points (often after an especially maniacal lyric).
Dreijer joined Jordan Darville for this week’s episode of The FADER Interview podcast to break down the new record at large and “Even It Out” in particular. “The song is sort of a revenge,” they explained. “It’s something I had been fantasizing about, because in real life, I would never go and stab a kid.” Read Next: New Music Friday: Stream new projects from Fever Ray, Nia Archives, MSPAINT, and more However fictional the child murder fantasy may, though, the song comes from a real place of regret. “I wish I had been more thorough with the principal and the teachers,” they said. “We were in meetings and meetings and meetings, talking about how to take care of this, how they were trying to solve this situation, but they never did.
So it ended up that my kid had to change schools. That’s something I still feel very bad about. That’s something you feel as a parent: that you’re never doing enough. “So this [song] is a bit like going back and trying to make things right,” they continued.
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