There’s a certain electricity that courses through Ready, Steady, Die!’s latest single, “WYSIWYG” — a pulse that feels equal parts cathartic release and unspoken confession. Following the critical acclaim of 2022’s Accidents and the breakout success of Settle, the British-American duo return with their most visceral work to date, a genre-bending anthem that doubles as a love letter to authenticity and self-liberation.
Written in reverse — with a script shaping the song, rather than the other way around — WYSIWYG emerges as a rare hybrid of cinema and sound. Director Max Clendaniel and DP Matt Riley provide the bones of the story, but it’s Morgan Visconti and Sam K who inject it with a beating heart, layering throbbing basslines, industrial drum hits, and a wave of post-chorus guitar that feels almost volcanic in its release. Sam’s vocals, calm yet devastatingly precise, cut through the noise with lines like “We are survivors, you and I… we are the same,” words that linger long after the final note collapses.
The accompanying short film pushes the track’s core message into sharper relief: a man, trapped in the routine of a 9-to-5, sheds his office skin each evening to transform into his truest self — a drag performer for an adoring online audience. It’s a story of duality, of masks and mirrors, of quiet rebellion against societal constraints. Surreal humour softens the edges, but beneath it lies a truth that’s hard to ignore: freedom of expression often comes at a cost, but the alternative — a life unlived — is far heavier.
With WYSIWYG, Ready, Steady, Die! find themselves at their most immediate and unflinching, marrying their cinematic instincts with a pop-rock accessibility that feels like a natural evolution rather than a compromise. It’s a track that doesn’t just ask to be heard — it demands to be felt, a battle cry for anyone who has ever ached to exist without apology.
