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Specifically track 4 Salem Sisters
It (at least in my interpretation of the lyric) being about the social awkwardness of being at a party being depicted as being burned at the stake resonates with me an insane amount. plus someone (professor skye) called them British boygenius so you can’t go wrong. (man I wrote being a lot)
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The first single from Winter Boyfriend from the upcoming album set a, frankly, very different note. 'anx/bodies' is an outlier for us, musically and lyrically, but when putting the final touches to the album it was one of the songs that people seemed instinctively to engage with if they weren't broadly invested in our main thing, essentially indie/indie-punk made by a would-be emo band. At the very least it provoked a reaction.
It's a song inspired by a very specific series of events but is not specifically autobiographical. Outside of the world of this song i am much less forward about sex. I enjoy being 'too much' with friends but i really don't want it going anywhere my family might hear it. Repression is fun! I often wonder if that's similar to what actors feel when doing nudity or whatever. It's a case of, "I don't want to know you've seen me experience that?" Anyway, honesty can help in art, but also maybe so too does a little internal repression.
It was written about a memory of going to a university disco, arriving at the club where everyone was looking hot and cool, and i suddenly becoming very aware of my inability to be calm. It is essentially about over-stimulation and amorousness and the confusion of that smashing like a wrecking ball through any semblance of chill i might have had.
The verse bass riff is really old, easily over 10 years old. I wrote it for a different project, a Death From Above 1979 rip-off thing, and my pal Martin played bass, while i sang and drummed. The song was unremarkable but the riff was cool. There was no way i wasn't keeping it. Also, it explains why it's the only song that uses a fuzz bass tone. Yet.
I have no idea when i came up with the guitar riff but it's one of my favourite parts i've written. It's rythmic and a little bit dissonant, but i think the G# implies an E Major chord, making it A minor natural (sorry music theory experts, probably butchering this).
I was also unsure if i could allow myself to write the chorus which used power chords. It always feels too basic. But it worked in the context of the song. I finished it years ago aside from a few lyrical tweaks and the introduction sound (chord played, tremolo arm depressed as it fades out, recorded and reversed). Also when mixing the song my references were very different and included a lot of 00s and 10s music, including bands that have been grandfathered into the whole 'indie-sleaze' thing, and it made me realise the second verse needed, nay demanded!, a cowbell and some percussion (the other percussion is drumming on glass bottles fyi).
I feel like 'anx/bodies', and the song that follows it, 'on our way home', are two sides of the same coin. One uptight, repressed yet explosive, and the other unrelenting, desperate and flailing. You could almost imagine the latter being later in the same night, getting existential when worse-for-wear. More on that one later.
Jun 19, 2024
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What a wonderful way to end the album ‘the record,’ especially on vinyl where it has a locked groove so the song keeps playing the last note indefinitely until you stop it yourself. First time you experience it it’s eerie, but I think in the scheme of the last two lines of the song is makes sense: “I can't feel it yet / But I am waiting all morning...” — almost as if the note is being held out long enough for the singer to believe that it true, or that it will be true one day. Any song written by Lucy Dacus is 10/10 for me as she manages to bring a depth & transparency to anything she touches.
May 5, 2024
when I was 18 in 2014 I listened to this ep the first time I did acid while my situationship (this word didn’t exist then) was at work. He lived next to the Stockton tunnel in the city and I could sit on the fire escape of the tiny junior one bedroom. We’d smoke spliffs and create art because we were both art students. I’m reading the lyrics and realize they feel oddly poetic and representative of my life since then.
you left me and I woulda done the same
you’re all poised and I’m made of poison
Anyways kitty is the queen of hyper pop
Jan 22, 2025
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Whenever I feel down or just kinda lost in the world I always gravitate towards it for the pure bliss that it overflows with and my undying love of the talking heads and David Byrne.
Apr 8, 2025
literally found out he had a website less than a minute ago and we can find out what it’s about together
Apr 8, 2025
