“Hello world / Hello friends / Here I am again,” opens “My Energy,” the debut single from Edward Kramer-Griggs’ new project Edward Knocks. It’s appropriate, as the British lo-fi pop musician and producer, who formerly released music as Ted Zed, comes out the other side of an artistic rebirth.
Despite landing a major label deal at just 19 and quickly earning critical acclaim from The Guardian to BBC's Zane Lowe, who called him the "next hype,” Edward still didn't feel creatively fulfilled. He went independent, moved to Sweden, and decided to start over. Inspired by his hero David Bowie, Edward then returned to London where he’s since created a new genre he light-heartedly calls "insecure pop.”
Locked down by both the pandemic and a case of writer’s block, Edward sat in his studio reading Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror until inspiration struck. Equal parts boastful, sincere, and insecure at the same time, “My Energy” spins and pulses across dancefloor memories with his own expression of 21st-century youth.
Edward tells Transverso,
“I was binging off videos on Youtube and ended up watching an interview by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy talking about failure. It was like a crushing wave of relief poured over me. From then on it was 'fuck it’ and with my favourite synthesizers and old MPC I composed ‘My Energy.’ The Edward Knocks project is a celebration of all the things I love about making music and the things that fascinate me about being human."
With the original music video plans scrapped by Covid-19, Edward shot the below with his partner alone in a field in Somerset, UK, resulting in perhaps the most genuine capture of his energy there could be.