Health Dropped a New Single “Ashamed (Of Being Born)”
A couple weeks after industrial noise rock band Health dropped two singles and announced their new album Rat Wars, they’re back with another new track titled “Ashamed (Of Being Born).”
Along with the single is an accompanying music video that shows John Famiglietti wearing a skin-tight vinyl suit that’s supposed to look like Asuka’s get up from Neon Genesis Evangelion during Anime Expo and DragonCon. Yes, I immediately recognized that and yes, I’m a huge nerd. Shut up.
While speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Jake Duzsik said the new track was a “highly personal” one.
“I think that this song is pretty explicit and it’s not shrouded in metaphors and similes and poetic prose. I think that when I wrote it, it was almost kind of stream of consciousness. I didn’t really spend a lot of time. It’s a brief song and within the two verses, I think the demo lyrics were the first thing I wrote and it just stayed exactly what it was. By stream of consciousness, I mean it was very reflective of my mental state and how I felt and so I just started kind of singing over it and then those stayed.
“I think that’s why the first verses are almost kind of talky and conversational because it’s like I’m trying to talk through something and then that ended up being what it was. Then the tag of coming back to what you’re talking about in terms of a sense of shame, is that the worst possible sense of shame to me is what the lyric is ashamed of being born, which is sort of this regret and doubt and pain about you just being in existence.
“I had recently become a father and was trying to deal with fatherhood and keeping a partnership together and then lockdown and all these different things. I think it was like Robert Smith, I read a quote of his where he was asked why he never had kids and it was because he was not consulted as to whether or not he wanted to be born and if he’d been given the choice, he would’ve preferred to have not been. I thought that that was incredible. Yeah, it’s about the most gothy thing you could say.”
“Ashamed (Of Being Born)” is the third single from Rat Wars, with “Children of Sorrow” and “Sicko” being the first two. You can check out the new single and its music video, as well as the previous two singles, below.
Rat Wars will be released on December 7 via Loma Vista Recordings, but you can preorder your copy today.
You can find the album’s full track list, along with the full list of tour dates, down below.
RAT WARS LP Tracklist:
- DEMIGODS
- FUTURE OF HELL
- HATEFUL
- (OF ALL ELSE)
- CRACK METAL
- UNLOVED
- CHILDREN OF SORROW
- SICKO
- ASHAMED
- (OF BEING BORN)
- DSM-V
- DON’T TRY
HEALTH Tour Dates:
10/06/2023 – Los Angeles, CA – Das Bunker (Full Album Listening Party)
03/02/24 – Ventura, CA – Ventura Music Hall *
03/04/24 – Mesa, AZ – Nile Theatre *
03/05/24 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine *
03/07/24 – Austin, TX – Empire Garage *
03/08/24 – Dallas, TX – Studio at the Factory *
03/09/24 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Midtown *
03/11/24 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade – Heaven Stage *
03/12/24 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground *
03/13/24 – Richmond, VA – The National *
03/15/24 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel *
03/16/24 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer *
03/17/24 – Boston, MA – Royale *
03/19/24 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House *
03/20/24 – Detroit, MI – The Majestic *
03/22/24 – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall *
03/23/24 – Saint Louis, MO – Red Flag *
03/25/24 – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre *
03/26/24 – Salt Lake City, UT – Metro Music Hall *
03/28/24 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox *
03/29/24 – Vancouver, BC – The Commodore *
03/30/24 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall *
04/01/24 – Roseville, CA – Goldfield Trading Post *
04/02/24 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall *
04/04/24 – Los Angeles, CA – Belasco Theater *
* with support from Pixel Grip and King Yosef
