New York-based songwriter and producer Jonny Pierce is the creative mastermind of the acclaimed and beloved recording project The Drums. Since the project’s formation back in 2010, Pierce has released six albums, cultivating a fiercely loyal fanbase through sharp songwriting and a timeless blend of indie pop, surf rock and post-punk.
The Drums have consistently sold-out headlining tours across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia, while making multiple runs of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Coachella, Primavera Sound, Outside Lands, Corona Capital and Lollapalooza. Pierce’s work has appeared in film, television and global campaigns for brands, including Volkswagen. Their breakthrough single “Money” has taken on a remarkable second life, fueled by viral TikTok trends that have introduced the song to millions of new listeners. Recently certified platinum, “Money” has amassed hundreds of millions of streams while simultaneously resonating with fans both old and new.
Iranian American artist Aryan Ashtiani is the creative mastermind behind the goth-inspired project Marueax. His career has been a stratospheric rise: Ashtiani played his first sold-out Mareaux show in June, after his viral cover of The Cure’s ‘The Perfect Girl” lit up the internet, eventually being certified platinum in the States and gold in France. Less than a year later, Ashtiani played Coachella, embarked on two US tours and a European tour, while landing sets across the international festival circuit.
Having helped spark a resurgence of internet in post-punk and dark wave among a constantly online new generation, Maruex finds himself at the forefront of the latest innovative strain of goth. “I want to become a gateway to older subcultural genres for people who are just discovering alternative music today,” the rising Iranian American artist says.
Building upon a rapidly rising profile, he released his debut album 2023’s Lovers From The Past, and quickly establishing his brand through cult favorite videos for “Night Vision” and “Lovers From The Past.” Last year’s Nonstop Romance saw the rising Iranian American artist prioritizing feel and vibe over clarity rooted in his desire to “make every day about making someone happy and giving them the best life possible.”
Ashtiani will continue to support Nonstop Romance with a European tour and East Coast tour to close out 2026.
Last week, Pierce launched a new label, Abysmal Records. He founded the label as a home for collaboration experimentation and emerging artists he deeply believes in. The label’s first single “It Didn’t Matter” is a collaboration with Pierce’s The Drums and Ashtiani’s Maruex. “It Didn’t Matter” feat. Mareux not only kicks off Abysmal Records in grand style, it’s the first of a six-month series of collaborative singles originating from recording sessions with a handpicked group of artists over the past two years, artists whose work has inspired Pierce and whose work he wanted to amplify.
Built around a sleek and chilly, darkwave-inspired motorik paired with Ashtiani’s yearning, heartbroken delivery, “It Didn’t Matter” is a brooding tune featuring a narrator desperately seeking an explanation. Throughout the song’s runtime, Ashtiani’s narrator expresses feelings of confusion and foolishness over a heartbreak with difficult to ignore pleas. The result is a song grounded in a deep, psychological realism that gives the song a walloping emotional punch.
“Not since writing my earliest music has a song come together so effortlessly. Whenever that happens, it makes me feel certain the song was meant to exist—that it needed to be here, for all of us,” Jonny Pierce says of the collaboration. “Mareux’s synthesizer wizardry threw me back to my teenage years, when almost everything I listened to was synthesizer-based music, especially synth-pop. His sounds, textures, and perfect pop chord changes reminded me of the soundtrack to such a tender time in my life—when I was desperate for love but just couldn’t find it, and synthesizers became the soundtrack to my sadness. This one is for those of us who keep banging our heads against the wall of another heart, only to be given nothing in return.”
The Abysmal Records series will pave the way for The Drums’ 12th album, which is planned for a 2027 release.
