Fast-rising London based artist and multi-instrumentalist Oscar Lang has released the video for his latest single, “21 st Century Hobby,” off his debut album Chew The Scenery, out August 13 on Dirty Hit. PRESS HERE to watch the video which sees Lang surrounded by a mirage of the elements and advertisements that inundate you on social media and the toxic effects it creates. “21 st Century Hobby” is currently featured on a variety of top playlists including Spotify’s All New Indie, The Indie List, and Today’s Indie Rock as well as Apple Music’s New Music Daily and New In Alternative. PRESS HERE to listen/stream the track and PRESS HERE to pre-order Chew The Scenery.
“21 st Century Hobby is a tune based on the idea of society’s obsession with sharing your life online and comparing yourself to other people,” Lang shares. “There was one point where I was spending 13 hours a week on social media, which equated to about a month every year. That was a really dark time for me – I always thought that it would never affect me, but it took some time to realize that it was subconsciously affecting my mental health.”
“21 st Century Hobby” joins “Stuck,” which was written to capture the emotions and complicated feelings that are often attached to the embarrassing situations we replay in our minds, and “Are You Happy?,” written about a friend having a really hard time, in building on the cohesive blueprint of Lang’s debut album. Chew The Scenery is his most ambitious release to date, which spans topics such as growing pains, love, romance, friendships and the pitfalls of social media on our collective mental health.
All three singles demonstrate Lang’s versatility and growth as a songwriter, highlighting Chew The Scenery’s scuzzy indie rock dynamics, psychedelic flourishes, and orchestral grandiosity. “Over the past two years the sound of my music has changed a lot, from bedroom pop to rock” Lang explains. “We recorded the album over a month up in Liverpool. It was a nice break away from the tedious lockdown in the UK as I got to spend a month away with my mates doing what I love. I think you can hear that built-up boredom being released on the record.”
Chew The Scenery furthers Lang’s rise following a momentous 2020 for Lang which yielded the release of three EPs, Antidote to Being Bored, Hand Over Your Head and Overthunk. Lang’s “Apple Juice” has been featured in EA Sports game FIFA 2021while “She Likes Another Boy” has found an audience on TikTok the platform where “coffee,” the track Lang produced for beabadoobee, has found viral legs in Powfu’s “death bed (coffee for your head)”, which has collected over 998 million streams on Spotify alone. Along the way, Lang has also gathered praise from SPIN, Ones To Watch, All Things Go, BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, Annie Mac, and Huw Stephens, The FADER, The Line Of Best Fit, NME, CLASH, The Guardian, The Sunday Times and others.
