Melbourne’s prince of dark pop, JXCKY, has today released his third and final single of the year, Incognito Mode—and just like his previous releases, LFG!!! and I Don’t FW The Flakes, it tells a story of heartbreak, animosity, and vengeance.
All three tracks show a louder, more badass side of the singer that we, as audiences, haven’t seen from him yet. But unlike his previous two releases, Incognito Mode explores a more intimate and vulnerable side of JXCKY, too. “I had something really personal happen to me in a relationship,” JXCKY tells Not Safe For Queers. “But I wanted to reference it in a fun way, and I had the title ‘Incognito Mode’ in my notes app for so long.”
Ultimately, the track is very highly conceptual, revolving around the idea of discovering unsettling and uncomfortable truths about someone you love. “Sometimes you have a gut feeling—a strong intuition—that something’s wrong. And in this instance, I was going through the search history of this person’s phone and found something I didn’t want to see,” he says.
And these themes are clear as day in the song’s lyrics, which were written very deliberately. “None of it’s metaphoric,” JXCKY says. “The song is meant to be taken literally. And it’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written, because there’s an element of songwriting to it that I quite enjoy; how I sewed the story together right up until the end and you’re not really sure what I found on this phone up until the very last line.”
“It shocks everyone when I play it for them for the first time.”
This very literal narrative that JXCKY has woven together extends to the track’s visuals, too, which some may notice references Troye Sivan’s Rush music video.
“I actually did take inspiration from Rush. But the funny thing is, I actually wrote this song and came up with it conceptually before Troye even put it out,” JXCKY says.
“But because he had put it out, and he did it in such a cool way, I wanted it to be similar. Like, he’s such a gay icon, and he’s Australian, and I love him and his music—so I thought it would be cool to pay homage to him and do it my own way.”
JXCKY by District Down Under
Incognito Mode, together with LFG!!! and I Don’t FW The Flakes, mark a shift in JXCKY’s music, moving closer towards the dark side of dark pop than ever before. “Coming into making this project, I wanted to really go into dark pop like I never had,” he says. “I wanted to just go from my feelings. And if my feelings were that I’m so angry about people who flake on me, and the impact that has on my mental health; or if I’m so upset about this whole phone situation, then it has to come out in these kind of rock sounds.”
“And not only do I think that it accentuated how I felt, but I feel like it made my songwriting stronger, too.”
Looking ahead at what this new era has in store, JXCKY explains that these previous three releases are part of a much bigger, overarching project. “These three singles, LFG!!!, I Don’t FW The Flakes, and Incognito Mode are the louder parts of the project,” he says. “They really represent and reflect the emotions I felt during the period I was writing this project. I wanted people to feel the rage, to feel the heartbreak, and feel the animosity I was feeling.”
To celebrate this new project, JXCKY is hosting a one-off event on Saturday 19 June at Pride of Our Footscray called The Incognito Session. “It’s a limited event named after Incognito Mode. It’s a one-off thing that has nothing to do with performances or anything, but it definitely has a lot to do with this entire project,” he says.
JXCKY’s journey through this project has been one of self-discovery and artistic growth. “I was waiting for so long to write a body of work that I’m completely attached to,” he says. This EP, he says “is the right time, the right situation, the right set of circumstances”, that make it special.
Incognito Mode is out now. Listen to it on Apple Music or Spotify. Tickets to JXCKY’s one-off limited event, The Incognito Session, are also on sale now.