jack strify • ILLUSION

Jack Strify's first full album ILLUSION will be released on April/24/2015.

Songs used in this videos are "Hearts Are Digital", "Electric" (ft. Bonnie Strange), "Lovers When It's Cold", "My Obsession" (Live in Russia) and "The Matrix".

New Wave, Synthpop or rather Powerpop? Berlin-based artist and singer Jack Strify blurs the lines between genres in his sound and vision to create a home for his songs and make them more authentic and vivid. „My taste in music has always been diverse. In my teenage years, I was too rock-y for the pop people and too pop for the goth kids. I didn’t fit in, so why should my music?“ he explains.

The artist has always been drawn to the unconventional and strange: Those have already been motives for him as the lead singer in German Glampop group Cinema Bizarre that formed in 2005. The five-piece band combined elements from Japanese Visual Kei with European synth sounds and this unsusual melange led to success all over Europe with their debut single „Lovesongs (They Kill Me)“, followed by three albums (Final Attraction, TOYZ, Bang!), concerts around the globe and supporting Lady Gaga on her „The Fame Ball“ tour in 2009 in the United States.

Despite their success, Cinema Bizarre decided to break up in 2010 due to creative differences. Jack Strify took some time off from the music business to find his own artistic roots. This eventually resulted in his first solo EP GLITTER + DIRT that was released without any record label in 2013, accompanied by a video trilogy that visually presented his first work as a solo artist. The EP being a warm-welcomed hit amongst his fans, Jack Strify played his first solo shows in February 2014.

Already shortly after the release of his EP, he started working on new
music with long-time friend and songwriter Michelle Leonard. „I feel confident enough with my new material to release my first full length album. The sound is a natural developement from my EP, it sounds more mature, diverse and more universal.“ he says, „Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Visage have definitely been an influence on this album but also contemporary synthpop music such as La Roux, Hurts or Goldfrapp, science fiction novels and movies, „Brave New World“ or „Metropolis“ in particular. Bowie is one of my biggest heroes as well, I think subconsciously he always influences me. Lyrically, I feel like my album represents my journey the last years, there’s a strong theme of letting go and moving on. I gave my album the name ILLUSION because I fall in love with illusions so easily and in the end I’d rather have my illusions than nothing at all. What is real anyway?“