Insecure Men

The Arc of Insecure Men

The pivots — what forced Insecure Men to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Upstate Detox & Self-Titled Debut

   Exiled from Fat White Family while trying to get clean, Adamczewski retreated to Sean Lennon's studio in upstate New York with Ben Romans-Hopcraft to build something radically different from South London sleaze-punk. They drafted Jon 'Catfish' DeLorme on pedal steel and layered smooth vibraphones over dark, uncomfortable character studies. The resulting 2018 self-titled debut sounded like warped MOR pop, completely dodging the garage-rock playbook for lush, twisted exotica.

2. 02

   The Long Layover to A Man for All Seasons

   After the initial flurry of the debut and the oddball Karaoke for One cassette, the project went quiet while Saul floated between band duties and side gigs. The lineup shifted into an expansive collective featuring Black Lips alumni Cole Alexander and Zumi Rosow alongside longtime conspirator Lias Saoudi. That extended break culminated in 2025's A Man for All Seasons, leaning fully into seasoned, cabaret-damaged lounge pop.

Influences

• Martin Denny — Adamczewski explicitly cited 1950s exotica records as the primary blueprint for Insecure Men's shift away from garage-punk noise. You hear it all over the debut's vibraphones, bird-call arrangements, and faux-tropical textures. It gave their sleaze an uncanny, easy-listening sheen.
• Gary Wilson — Wilson's 1977 outsider-lounge classic You Think You Really Know Me established the archetype of the deeply creepy, synth-drenched crooner that Saul leaned into. That uncomfortable, voyeuristic bedroom-pop vocal delivery defines tracks like 'Subaru Nights.' It is pure suburban dread masquerading as a slow jam.
• Steely Dan — Romans-Hopcraft and Adamczewski constantly referenced Becker and Fagen's immaculate studio sheen as the sonic target for Insecure Men. You can hear that pristine, yacht-rock production balance framing genuinely gross subject matter across their 2018 self-titled LP. It weaponizes slick chord changes against rotten themes.
• The Residents — The Residents' warped, surrealist approach to subverting traditional American pop songbooks directly informed Saul's approach to melody. You catch it in the pitch-bent organs and the off-kilter backing vocal arrangements on their early singles. They take cozy AM radio tropes and melt them around the edges.
• The Beach Boys — Adamczewski has long championed Brian Wilson's late-60s lo-fi period, particularly Friends and 20/20, for its sunny exterior and cracked psychology. That influence jumps out in the layered falsetto harmonies and naive chord progressions across the band's catalog. Pure bittersweet melody masking deep emotional rot.