Struggles before and after an ADHD diagnosis are something I strongly relate to personally as an artist and are the very reason you’re reading my words right here.
So imagine the excitement when I get hit with someone claiming to also be an elder emo with ADHD.
Well, that’s what Zack Fowler has brought to the table in the heavy track that says all it needs and then some in under two minutes. You can hear the original punk-pop vibes running through its blood from start to finish.
People have likened him to MGK but I’d say that was an insult personally. The tune doesn’t feel like recycled 00s or arrogant nepotist backing. You can tell the level of time, patience, heartbreak and effort that’s gone into the track and others that Fowler has been putting out.
They have a distinct and bold passion that holds a lot more water and energy of someone desperate to explain their struggles but in the only way, he knew how to. Using the tracks of his youth but adding his own style and soul to them. It’s more someone who was raised within that era as well as being a fan of dirty industrial created his own sound to tell a story of rejection, dysphoria and feeling like an outsider – which a lot of people will relate to making it a decent anthem for the lost and permanently confused.
Voices like Zack put into musical art forms – certainly sturdy headbangers like this – are a lifeline for people who can’t speak up for themselves
People have done it for you. Sometimes you don’t need to speak up but you can play tunes like this and feel heard as a neurodivergent person. You have a soundtrack to knowing you’re not alone with your own mind and other people understand you in ways you can’t articulate. I also wager that there will be an outpour for this that will help Fowler not feel like he’s shouting into the void. The voids going to shout his own words back at him which is a testament to the strength of the lyrics and the whole vibe of the song.
Long and short, brilliant, heavy tune in more ways than one.