Melanie Martinez's creative drive and talents have always distinguished her from other musicians. After releasing her platinum-certified 2015 debut album, Cry Baby—which reached No. 1 on Billboard's alternative albums chart and has amassed over two billion streams worldwide —she conceived and directed a video for each song on the album. These mini-movies traced the traumas and insecurities experienced by the album's character, Cry Baby.
 
Melanie’s sophomore album and film, K-12, is another ambitious triumph. K-12's music is a vibrant and singular melting pot of low-key hip-hop, soulful pop and indie-leaning electro. K-12's universe is an expansion of the one introduced in Cry Baby. Using lyrics rich with metaphor, songs address the struggle to find a place to belong—including within friendships, the physical world and romantically—even when fitting into society feels like an uphill battle.
 
To accompany the album, Martinez wrote and directed a 90-minute movie (also called K-12) that incorporates the album's music and mirrors the themes and characters introduced. Filmed on location in Budapest, Hungary, the movie focuses on Cry Baby (portrayed by Martinez) and a class of students who find themselves trapped in a horror house-like residential school. As they experience the usual grade school rites of passage—a lunch room food fight, the embarrassment of gym class, a romance with nefarious intentions, courses taught by checked-out teachers— they have to figure out a way to escape.

Sometimes, Mitski feels life would be easier without hope, or a soul, or love. But when she closes her eyes and thinks about what’s truly hers, what can’t be repossessed or demolished, she sees love. “The best thing I ever did in my life was to love people,” she says. “I wish I could leave behind all the love I have after I die, so I can shine all this goodness, all this good love that I’ve created onto other people.” She hopes her newest album, The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We, will shine love long after she’s gone. That’s precisely how it feels: like a love that’s haunting the land.

“This is my most American album,” she says. The music feels like a profound act of witnessing this country, in all of its private sorrows and painful contradictions. Sonically Mitski’s most epic and wise album, the songs introduce wounds and then actively heal them. Here, love is time-traveling to bless our tender days, like light from a distant star.

It's full of the ache of the grown-up, seemingly mundane heartbreaks and joys that are often unsung but feel enormous. It’s a tiny epic. From the bottom of a glass, to a driveway slushy with memory and snow, to a freight train barreling through the Midwest, and all the way to the moon, it feels like everything and everyone is crying out in pain, arching towards love. Love is that inhospitable land, beckoning and then rejecting us. To love this place, this earth, this America, this body takes work. It might be impossible. The best things are.

Our new album, "Recover" OUT NOW: https://TNAF.lnk.to/recover

@wearethedirt on instagram, tiktok, etc... "we are the dirt" on spotify

We’re RARE AMERICANS—animated storytellers focused on the real and raw. We sing for the underdogs and don’t shy away from life’s toughest corners. Over the past five years, we’ve built a pretty dope community of kids around the world. 

In just a few years, we’ve racked up over 700 million streams, embarked on sold-out tours across North America and Europe, and even earned a Juno nomination for “Breakthrough Group of the Year”—Canada’s equivalent of a Grammy. But we’re just getting started. 2024 is shaping up to be our most ambitious year yet. Our sixth album in six years, “The Human Animal,” dropped on August 16— twenty-five tracks that explore the full spectrum of the human experience. From our most awe-inspiring inventions to the darkest aspects of our nature, and the vast emotions we grapple with daily, this album delves into the essence of humanity, a theme that has always captivated us. This year also marks the release of our 90-minute animated punk rock musical, “(S)kids.” The project premiered with two sold-out screenings at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival in France and is currently making its rounds on the film festival circuit. Fans can expect to see it in the coming months.

We’ve spent the last two years in the recording and animation studio, crafting our best work yet. We can’t wait to bring our new songs and animations to life on stage. Our Europe tour kicks off on September 26th in London, with more dates to be announced soon.

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