With almost 3.3 monthly listeners for one of his projects, Liam McCay is a producer, musician, and slow core artist from a small town in Ireland. He is a trans artist under many different pseudonyms on Spotify! These names include “Manta,” “Take Care,” “busty latinas,” “hold,” “miserable teens club,” “moon water,” etc.
Liam McCay is currently on tour in the US for the first time with all the money from his merch going to Palestine as relief funds according to his Instagram one day.
Liam McCay is 19 years of age according to one source called Nialler9, an influential Irish music source. McCay’s genres are slowcore and bedroom pop or indie. The name sign crushes motorist is a reference to Duster (refer to the first link down below for a visual reference).
I truly believe that McCay deserves his success and it’s super cool that he just makes this all on his own in his bedroom as a producer and artist. It’s unlike Clairo, who has a father who is already in the music industry with some calling her an “industry plant.” This means nepotism is at play where money and fame are already inherited. However, not much is known about Liam McCay’s background, other than the fact that he’s from Ireland. It’s clear that McCay works with his friends in his Take Care projects, highlighting different themes with titles of “Agony,” “Reject,” and “Alive.” Two of the covers feature his friends.
As for the artist himself, I watched one of his interviews on YouTube a while back this year. When I watched an hour long interview under the YouTube channel titled “Greyed Out,” I remember learning that his next steps at this age are to study computer science in college and maybe move to the states. He will find out after getting a feel after touring the US! According to an article by Niall Bryne, from earlier this year in February 2024, he rose to prominence within the last year with the help of his songs being used in Tik Tok videos.
I distinctly remember the very first time I discovered a track. On the bus, I was listening to music and on auto-play, a song called “better” by sign crushes motorist played. Immediately, I added it to that month’s playlist. It wasn’t until a long while after when I decided to listen to more of sign crushes motorist’s music. I think my favorite projects by McCay are “I’ll be Okay,” “Hurting,” and “Boyhood,” under the name Birth Day.
Boyhood is a great album in the way it depicts the feelings of how he felt transitioning as a transgender male and growing up. It may feel eerie, but that’s exactly the point as a coming-of-age story. The beautiful thing about music is that it’s a language and it can be used to build and develop empathy.
Something really cool is that I was able to get a friendly acquaintance to listen to SCM and his other work as well via the new Airbuds app, where people can see active music listening with those they have added.
Concert Footage
Furthermore, I was able to catch SCM live with a friend of mine. Here is some footage from his concert, including a snippet of the opener, Olivia O. (Olive) from the band Lowertown. Although SCM records exclusively by himself in his room, while touring, he played with Lowertown’s band!
Song Highlight:
This track or monologue is perfect for fans of the movies, Perks of Being a Wallflower or It's Kind of a Funny Story.
