Dune Messiah puts Western egocentrism on display on new single from forthcoming album

After an EP, two albums and several tours in Europe, Danish deviant pop-artist DUNE MESSIAH aka singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist Magnus W. Jespersen now announces his third album 'Privileged' set for an October 14th 2022 release on the new label Wet Desert. The past months, Dune Messiah has released the two singles ‘Privileged’ and ‘Death On Wheels’ and today, the album’s third single ‘In Front of Others’ arrives.

On the forthcoming album ‘Privileged’, the punk attitude is replaced with latin rhythms, Spanish trumpet and saxophones, setting the scene for frontman and songwriter Magnus W. Jespersen’s chilling crooner vocals and metaphorical lyrics meditating on the dark sides of existence, loneliness and the decay of the surrounding world. This is also the case with ‘In Front of Others’ of which Jespersen says:

"‘In Front of Others’ is about being self-centered and not being able to see beyond the tip of your own nose. It is about the Stockholm syndrome in all of us, where you become fascinated or fall in love with your opponents or 'enemies', and become overly focused on them in your life. It is inspired by both R.E.M. and Sade. Malte Nordtorp plays trumpet, and I wanted him to hit that Spanish flamenco vibe, to capture that warm sound, which I think is a great contrast to the drum machines."

Dune Messiah will play a free show at Pumpehuset Byhaven in Copenhagen on September 10th - event is HERE - and more shows are planned in connection with the album release.

Also, watch the video for ‘Death on Wheels‘

(6) Dune Messiah - Death on Wheels (Official Video) - YouTube

On ‘Privileged’, Dune Messiah has broadened the expressive span in regards to both music, production and lyrics. Inspired by the huge 90’s productions from the likes of Roy Orbison and Vaya Con Dios, he includes new sounds and instrumentation such as mexican trumpets, analogue drum machines and keyboards with acoustic instrument samples reproducing xylophone and marimba. All this is complimented by a 90’s-lush saxophone by Joseph Shabason from Canada’s Destroyer resulting in an analogue, warm soundscape that delivers a balanced counterplay to Jespersens chillingly observing songwriting and vocal performance.

‘Privileged’s interplay between cold and warm, between a narrative of agony and a luxurious, almost “sexy” production supports the album theme - the northern European’s ambivalence towards its own privileged life in the midst of a world of crisis and conflict. As an extension of this, the small, peculiar love songs compromising the album contain a twist of humor, irony and discomfort with an imminent feeling of ineptitude. At the same time, the suffering is real, as the privileged also exist in this world as a human capable of feeling pain and loneliness - privileged, white, man or not.