Senior Dunce debuts with new single "City Centre"

There's a beautiful, electric thing that happens when identity, memory, and rhythm collide, and in his debut single, "City Centre," under his new moniker, electronic artist Senior Dunce captures the sensation with unmistakable clarity.

Senior Dunce has shed the heavy, melancholy skin of his past works and re-introduced himself, born anew in the sound of today, bright and throbbing and moving. "City Centre" is a memory that springs to life, thumping away out loud with living, breathing light. It's nostalgic but not obsessed with the past, rhythmic but not formulaic, and profoundly personal yet wildly relatable. The song yanks you out onto the dance floor to move your body and recall who you were when it first seemed you didn't belong and who made you feel seen regardless.

A mispronunciation during his time in Liverpool inspired the title "City Centre" as he initially said, "centray," which tells a quiet but deeply moving story of finding oneself an outsider in a city that, against the odds, accommodates you. Instead of the joke about him, Senior Dunce saw his error and celebrated his Scouser mates, even taking it on as a badge of honor. That instant of unexpected belonging is the emotional center of this song. It's a homage to chosen family, cultural confusion, and the magic that happens when you're both lost and loved.

The accompanying music video, directed by his long-time collaborator Muturn, reflects that spirit visually. Muturn, a Korean dancer with a sensitive feel for emotional narrative, crafts a visual narrative that, while it may not understand the song's lyrics, does understand the heart of the music in movement and mood. The result is a beautiful dissonance that seems just right for the artist.

Senior Dunce is a philosophy. Hugging a life full of faults, a childhood of bullies, and always feeling like an outsider, he finds himself in the music, being defiant and accepted. With more than two decades of experience in music as a producer, sound designer, educator, and club owner, he's no upstart. But "City Centre" seems like a starting point, a moment where everything that came before is understood through the prism of a kick drum and a flubbed word.

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