In the 50s and 60s, tearjerkers (also known as “teenage tragedy songs” in the US and “death discs” in the UK) haunted the charts as a micro-genre where misfortune-filled, morbid pop hymns ballads, involved love break-ups and the tragic deaths of loved ones, speaking to a youth fascinated by the progress of new motor-speed possibilities.
Tearjerker is a one-person junkshop that’s part of an ecosystem orbiting independent record labels, grassroots music venues and skint musicians and listeners.
Based in Western Portugal, I deliver the forgotten sounds through small-run screen printed shirts I’ve designed with elements found in dusty record artwork and lyrics; low-cost vinyl records with lesser-known music that I believe deserves wider appreciation; and uncovering niche storytelling – because the future of music also involves the silenced voices of the past.
This is a project from a lad with two decades of experience booking gigs, working in visual arts and thrifting, standing on the same side of the trench as those trying to make a living in the harsh world of underground music.
