“I need you to tell me who I am supposed to be,” Sarah Goldfeather sings in the quirky, jump-cut new video for “Who Am I?”, directed by Joseph Sandoval. A pucker-lip closeup introduces the four stereotypical roles Goldfeather plays; a self-effacing athletic persona quickly shifts back and forth between the other three — the nerd, the hipster, and the socialite are just as insecure.
The lead single comes from Change, the upcoming debut album by Goldfeather (Sarah Goldfeather and Mike Tierney). The album is one of the selected projects from innova Recordings’ 2022 Spring National Call, a new open-call format that the label launched last year.
With Change, Goldfeather paints a surreal and fantastic sound world with dense textures, vulnerable lyrics, and effervescent soundscapes. In “Who Am I?”, a softly strummed acoustic guitar is added to the electronic effects and pop beats, as the four personas finally fuse into a blurry, identity-less whole.
Goldfeather (Sarah Goldfeather and Mike Tierney) — Photo by Shervin Lainez
Here is how Goldfeather describes the new song and video:
“Who Am I?” is about the journey to find oneself — by begging someone else to do the work. The video begins as a disjointed bop featuring lead singer Sarah Goldfeather trying on four disparate and exaggeratedly stereotypical identities (athletic, nerdy, hipster, and elegant). Eventually, the music melts into a disturbing, dissonant and hopeless refrain: “I don’t know/tell me what I should be,” wherein all the characters do something… unexpected.
Change is out on April 28 via innova Recordings, the in-house record label of American Composers Forum. You can catch Goldfeather performing “Who Am I” live at their April 7 single release show in Brooklyn.
About Goldfeather
Goldfeather is an experimental pop band based out of New York City. The whimsical brainchild of Sarah Goldfeather and Mike Tierney, Goldfeather’s music has been described as “a nightmare funhouse-mirror take on Carly Rae Jepson-style upbeat pop [that is] deeply disconcerting and outrageously fun” (National Sawdust Log), “full of light and life” (The Current, Minnesota Public Radio), and “poignant… striking and laudable” (The Deli Magazine).
Sarah and Mike have led rich and eclectic musical careers that inform their music. Sarah is currently the violinist for Lincoln Center Theater’s Production of The Coastal Starlight and was the 2019-2020 violin chair for Tony-winning and Grammy-nominated Broadway production of Oklahoma! She has made television appearances including The Tonight Show, The Today Show, the 2019 Tony Awards, has been a featured artist in series across the U.S. and Europe, including TEDxMET, and has performed with notable artists, such as Courtney Love, Lizzo, Ronnie Spector, and Kimbra. She is the artistic director of the ensemble Exceptet and a composer of chamber works commissioned by ETHEL quartet, Contemporaneous, pianist Timo Andres, and more.
Mike is a three-time Grammy-nominated audio engineer and producer based in Brooklyn who has worked with a range of artists across genres, including Steve Reich, Medeski Martin & Wood, Stephen Stills, Julia Wolfe, Pharaoh Sanders, Judy Collins, and Alarm Will Sound. He currently works out of his studio, Shiny Things Studio.
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