The posthumous legacy of late pop mastermind Stroik is finally acknowledged with the arrival of his long-overdue debut album, 65th and York, alongside new single “La La La.” It’s joined by an official music video directed by the late filmmaker/musician Joshua Stoddard (Red House Painters, Ivy, Fountains of Wayne).
The album is available everywhere now via Unfiltered Records and Caveman Arts Society. A never-before-heard collection created by a truly exceptional – yet sadly lost – musical voice, 65th and York includes strange and beautiful songs. Produced by Stroik with longtime friend and musical collaborator Bruce Driscoll (Freedom Fry, Blondfire, Ivy, Camera2) and Unfiltered Records founder Andy Chase (of the iconic indie pop band Ivy).
In November 2022, the music world tragically – and unknowingly – lost one of its most special and irreplaceable voices, Stroik. At only 35 years old, Drew Stroik passed away, leaving behind a catalog of over 100 unreleased songs, all created while privately struggling with poverty, loneliness, and substance abuse in the notoriously dangerous city of Pueblo, CO.
Stroik’s songs are imperfectly perfect pop masterpieces, imbued with heavy doses of relatability and human emotion. Though he referred to them as “generic pop,” to the world at large, they are far from that. Every single one of Stroik’s raw, esoteric, and mesmerizing tracks was made using the same main tools – a guitar he got for his 12th birthday and a Yamaha keyboard made of plastic, meant for children or beginners. The combination of strange synth textures and uncorrected finger-played drum sounds and patterns, fused with his soft, warm, honest voice, adds up to something that is specifically, spellbindingly “Stroik.”
In addition, Stroik’s all-too-brief life and career will be explored in the upcoming short film, Drew Stroik: Unknown Pop Wizard, set to arrive next year. An official selection in the Culver City Film Festival and a semi-finalist at Brooklyn, NY’s Dumbo Film Festival, the documentary is preceded by an exclusive trailer streaming now at YouTube.
