Photo by: Alana Wool

Despite the outright denial in its title, death is present in every one of the songs on Never Die, the collaborative album from Midwife’s Madeline Johnston and Matt Jencik (of Implodes, Don Caballero, and Slint’s live band) — out July 11 on Relapse Records. Pre-orders are live at the links below. Jencik held the tenderest thought imaginable when he came up with that phrase—”Never Die”—the fact that the people he loves eventually would, a certainty that feels impossible and remote, until the day it absolutely doesn’t. Never Die represents Jencik’s desperate bid to hold onto everyone he loves, to keep them on Earth so fiercely that they might enter the grave with claw marks on their skin. Johnston, who recognizes the grace of mortality (and who, as Midwife once sang: “I don’t wanna live forever,” over and over) serves as the spiritual guide for the album, transmuting the fear of death into an incentive to live more keenly and dearly. Stream the single “Delete Key” and watch the visualizers. Continue reading →