The Drums’ Jonny Pierce launches Abysmal Records with Mareux collaboration “It Didn’t Matter”

Pierce described the partnership with Mareux as unusually fluid. “Not since writing my earliest music has a song come together so effortlessly,” he said. “Whenever that happens, it makes me feel certain the song was meant to exist - that it needed to be here, for all of us. Mareux’s synthesizer wizardry threw me back to my teenage years, when almost everything I listened to was synthesizer-based music, especially synth-pop.” The Drums' 2024 album Jonny dealt explicitly with difficult personal history. “It Didn’t Matter” filters similarly raw subject matter through sleek, cold-wave production that keeps the song moving forward even as its lyrics circle confusion and regret. Mareux’s presence as co-author pushes the track into a more atmospheric register, aligning with his own reputation for reviving post-punk and gothic sounds for a younger online audience. Abysmal Records, Pierce says, has been conceived as a home for collaboration and experimentation, with a handpicked roster of emerging artists. The series of singles that “It Didn’t Matter” launches will lead into a new full-length album from The Drums expected in 2027. Pierce’s choice to structure the label around collaborative ...