Mav Karlo and the dreamy, sadly drawn "Elevator" is beautifully moving (Official Video)

photo by annie murphy

Mav Karlo is the singer-songwriter music project of Menno Vertseeg, the founder of Royal Mountain Records, the Canadian label home of Mac DeMarco, Alvvays, U.S. Girls, Orville Peck, Pottery and more. His latest dreamy and sadly drawn track Elevator mentions Superman or at least sometimes feeling like Superman. It hooked me in, I guess because my adoration for the Man of Steel (at least in my youth) but on Elevator, Vertseeg also (sometimes) feels like a bacteria... "I make you sick even though you don't even know I'm there". 

Elevator sways in such a beautiful way. It sadly ascends while Vertseeg seems to admonish his own existence or place in the world, "There are evenings when I wonder when my body shakes, I'm such a cliche fake, take these gray pills I hate" and pretty soon you realize the song is about his high highs and low lows and dealing with his mental health, "Elevator, please stop on my floor cuz I can't go up, can't go down anymore".

Whether it is a sort of bipolar ballad that eventually erupts in screams or just about so called "normal" things like coming to terms with life and it's meaning or why life beats us up, it is so keenly relatable and ultimately so moving. He ends with a plea or possibly a prayer,  "Please let me stay where I am just ok and day after day after day is the same". Damn.

The Elevator single's B-Side is Vertseeg's version of The Weaves'  "Walkaway". Both tracks produced by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amen Dunes, Beach House) with backing vocals from Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls. 

-Robb Donker Curtius







THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

Toronto’s Mav Karlo (the project of singer-songwriter, Menno Versteeg) has released a new single — “Elevator,” b/w his take on the Weaves’ “Walkaway." The singles were produced by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amen Dunes, Beach House) with backing vocals from Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls.

"Elevator" is a frank and honest exploration of Versteeg's own experiences dealing with mental health over the years. The track sees Versteeg yearning for some middle-ground (“Just doing alright, would be more than alright; not over the moon or stuck under the ice"). The single’s b-side "Walkaway" is a track about finally finding comfort in yourself and your resilience.

Menno Vertseeg is also the founder of Royal Mountain Records, the Canadian label home of Mac DeMarco, Alvvays, U.S. Girls, Orville Peck, Pottery and more. The label made the headlines last year for their excellent mental health initiative for their artists (which Pitchfork covered here).