‘Dark Rooms and Cartoons’ is part of the 2020 EP, ‘Safer at Home.’ Through this single, Brandon Blvd takes the listener back to a carefree childhood world where comfort could be found in favorite cartoons and a room without light, while today is a bit more complicated. ‘Dark Rooms and Cartoons’ is an insightful and melancholy piece about our relationship to the past, reflecting on nostalgia and childhood and the complexities of adult life.
Born in 1991, Brandon Love Jackson, famously known as Brandon Blvd, joins forces with emerging songstress Mai Ty and the producer Sunny Dizzle who belongs to the trio production group Steaksawse.
The artist released his mixtape Vengeance is Mine: Memoirs of a Lost Soul in 2016. The mixtape was met with a lot of acclaim and support, earning him his first followers. Today, Brandon reaches thousands of listeners every month. In addition, he has built a local and national brand as a recording artist. He defines his sound as ghetto gospel, a type of music that allows people to build their relationship with God anywhere, not just in church. In addition to his music career, Brandon Blvd is the founder of Stay Hungry, a clothing collective and brand that offers a new approach to everyday apparel. He also founded the recording label Problematic Nation that goes beyond a business also to become a movement.
Safer at Home, the EP that features Dark Rooms and Cartoons, is an artistic project inspired by the coronavirus pandemic. The artist drew on these difficult times to make a series of songs that reflect a small part of the chaos that has taken over the world since 2020. The EP touches on various issues, including the pandemic, police brutality, and other issues that tie into the idea of home and how people experience the lockdown. For example, when staying at home and fighting for peace of mind, are people truly safer there than outside? How does the world measure up against the safety of home? In this context, Dark Rooms and Cartoons takes the listener back to childhood for a different image of home, how it used to be in the past, and the contrast with the present perceived as chaotic and full of threats. In a modern world that often goes back to childhood nostalgia for comfort, Brandon Blvd examines this tendency when it becomes especially a hot button issue when the outside becomes a source of danger.
You can stream Dark Rooms and Cartoons and the other tracks on Safer at Home, on Spotify, and all the other major music platforms.
Follow Brandon Blvd on Instagram @BrandonBoulevard to stay tuned for new releases. Support ‘Stay Hungry’ clothing collective and check out the Problematic Nation label to get inspired.