Fear of Men’s Jessica Weiss announces debut solo album as New German Cinema, Pain Will Polish Me

Jessica Weiss' solo endeavour arrives roughly fifteen years after she got her start as the vocalist of Brighton indie rock outfit Feat of Men. Today, she reveals the first preview of her new direction as New German Cinema with new single, "My Mistake", featuring Merchandise singer Carson Cox, arrives today. Speaking on the collaboration, Cox explains: “I was going to produce Fear of Men and instead we made something totally different I think. True collaboration which is my preferred way to work on music".

On the video music concept, Weiss adds: "The video sets the emotional tone for the record, suspended between eroticism and nightmare. It draws on cropped mirror framing - a favourite device of Douglas Sirk used to explore themes of emotional and physical entrapment and characters' inner psychological conflicts - moments of dissociation, and the television as a symbol of alienation, inspired by my perennial inspiration, RW Fassbinder."

Pain Will Polish Me, recorded over five years between London and Los Angeles and produced with Alex DeGroot (Zola Jesus, Cate Le Bon), is what Weiss describes as a "meditation" on German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Speaking about Fassbinder as a source of inspiration, she adds: “Germany’s history is everywhere but it’s unsaid. Fassbinder brought it into view. I wanted to approach the same sense of unease through sound.”

Pain Will Polish Me tracklist

"Sub Rosa"
"Swirling Pain"
"Being Dead"
"I Become Heavy"
"Hera's Theme I"
"Eyes"
"Water Drops"
"Hera's Theme II"
"My Mistake - Video"
"All That Heaven Allows"
"Pain Will Polish Me"
"Perfect Secret"