After decades’ worth of songs about flipping off your dreaded 9-to-5, Convinced Friend is finally supplying us with a middle finger for remote work culture. (Or a hearty thumbs-down, at least.)
Providence artist — and recent addition to the Relief Map Records family — A.S. Wilson trudges through the malaise of working from home in his new song “White Collar,” which arrived last month (September 28). As the first single from Wilson’s forthcoming debut record, “White Collar” wears its aching heart on its sleeve, lamenting the discord of the 2020s and society’s futile attempts at recovery.
“Disaffected knowledge worker / You take up gardening to reconnect / Practice mindfulness of the present,” he reflects on the first verse, shrugging at a cycle of burnout that’s quickly become commonplace. His wistful slice of slowcore marches onwards, even as burdensome deadlines and “unsubsidized loans” threaten to pin Wilson to the past.
“Lyrically, I think of it as a labor song for the age of remote work,” Wilson explains. “In particular, the unique generational moment of being surrounded by banal ideas about ‘self-care’ and ‘wellness’ while feeling increasingly precarious and consumed by work with no meaningful end point. I actually wrote the song before the pandemic, which has only seemed to accelerate those trends.”
In short — “[It’s] an ode to disappointing your boss, I guess!” Wilson says. Slap that on your WFH playlist.
Listen to “White Collar” below, and pre-order Convinced Friend’s forthcoming debut LP here.