Belfast lo-fi/anti-pop artist Dan O’Rawe, a.k.a. F.R.U.I.T.Y has released his new single U.P.S today. The track is taken from his upcoming self-titled debut EP.

U.P.S. follows F.R.U.I.T.Y.’s wonky reinterpretation of Bauhaus’ gothic rock classic Bela Legosi’s Dead and his debut single Not Quite Exceptional. At face value, it’s a laid-back summer-comedown single, but the story is far more complex.

“I put it together over the course of two years because I simply couldn’t finish it,” says F.R.U.I.T.Y. of the track. “I get easily distracted and to be honest, fed up working on a lot of overly stimulating things, so I make my songs in many pieces – like a puzzle that stamps various periods of time in my life. I guess that also reflects in the lyrics, especially ‘insomniac days, they keep repeating’.”

Expanding on these themes, F.R.U.I.T.Y. explains “it’s the summer loving comedown. The doubt, the reflection and the ending of those summer days.”

F.R.U.I.T.Y.’s unique style fluidly blends dizzying lo-fi electronica, hip-hop and avant-pop, underpinned by the deeply-embedded worldview of a queer artist in the North of Ireland.

His self-titled EP – out 5^th August – was written, performed and produced by F.R.U.I.T.Y. in its entirety, with the exception of some collaboration with Aidan Reynolds (Worryhead). F.R.U.I.T.Y. explains that the summer comedown theme pervades not only U.P.S, but the entire release.

“I wanted the EP to go through summer energy. That first romance, to those hot can days, and then the ending of them. Like cans in a park with someone you fancy, then you party with them later and you’re like ‘nah, stinking behaviour, I must leave’. There’s joy in doing things like that I think.”

The track itself is driven by dreamy, washed out synths while its lyrics are delivered in F.R.U.I.T.Y’s native accent in an unashamedly straight-faced manner. F.R.U.I.T.Y shies away from neither his natural lilt, nor his queer identity – his nom de guerre is an ironic reclamation of the familiar homophobic slur.