Sick Releases Its Second Single, a Nick Valensi, Aziya and Mr Hudson Collaboration

Sick has released its second single. “Scream Your Name” brings together Nick Valensi of the Strokes, producer Mr Hudson, and singer-songwriter Aziya, a combination that follows the label’s stated method: put artists from different worlds in one room and see what holds.

The track runs on thumping rhythm and a distorted guitar line, and its subject is a relationship that should have ended already. Aziya called it an ode to “the push and pull of a relationship you absolutely shouldn’t be in,” and said she wanted the lyrics to “feel ironically fun too, despite describing a relationship that’s extremely unhealthy.” She has described the session as deliberately open-ended, telling Valensi and Mr Hudson she wanted to experiment without a professional agenda attached to the song. Of its slow escalation, she said it is “the saxophones or the calm before the storm, that just gets louder and louder until you either finally call it quits or go in again for round 10.”

Sick was founded by Carré Callaway, the musician behind Queen Kwong, with Darian Zahedi and Nick Hinman. Its first release, “PULS.zip” in September, paired Lee Kiernan of IDLES with Tokyo-based artist RIS-707. The model is collaborative singles rather than long-term contracts, and the label works with both independent and signed artists.

Callaway has framed the project as an attempt to rebuild something at ground level. “I want Sick to foster a community and a scene,” she told Flood Magazine, adding that “every good artist has to take risks.” Whether a two-single-old label can hold that together is unsettled, and she has said as much herself.