We all need a little more mercy in our lives. In the chaos of the past half-decade, she was thrown into a whirlpool of shit by virtue of having enough of a spine to not succumb to the cult mentality that’s infected so many of her peers. I won’t say who the song is about since she’s a public figure, but it’s someone who left a bad taste in my mouth for years.
Even people who you’ve written off for years can surprise you. The lyrics are about empathy and forgiveness. The melody came immediately, and when I showed it to the band, Lindsey came up with that harmony that ties the whole song together. What I didn’t know is that I would end up writing the biggest chorus on the entire record.
Surfer blood full#
I knew I wanted the chorus to be full and lush to contrast the staccato verses. The verses were edgy in a good way, but it started to get taxing after a few minutes. I made sure to blow it out as much as possible by recording it through an overdrive pedal. I was listening to a lot of the Women self-titled record, and thought I would add an acoustic guitar to double the chords. I started to flesh out the parts and came up with the chord progression. A simple pop beat with one or two tweaks that make it sound slightly off. I came up with this intro and thought it sounded like the Talking Heads. Even though I don’t currently own a kit, I take every opportunity I can to play (usually before our soundchecks, or after everyone else has left the practice space). I’d say more, but the mystery is half the fun when digging through a lyric sheet. I love it so much, I decided to bring her to life in a song. It sings to me in the shower and plays on repeat every night when I close my eyes. To me, “Karen” represents the call of music. Mikey and Lindsey’s backup vocals have added so much to the live shows, I wanted to leave plenty of room for all of the “oohs” and “aahs” to fill out the space. It also gave me the opportunity to play around with the idea of call and response. I thought it would be a nice juxtaposition to the terse and urgent guitar parts that are so close to sounding harsh. The lead vocals are intentionally sparse, repetitive, and vague. After moving back home to Florida and reevaluating my entire life, I decided it was time to revisit old material. It was originally supposed to be the companion song to “Fast Jabroni,” (track seven on Astro Coast) but I never finished it, and ended up shelving it for over a decade. Inspired by the Wipers’ “Telepathic Love,” “Karen” is a new take on an idea I’ve been playing with, on and off, for years. If we had more time, we may have written a bridge or something, but in hindsight I’m glad we didn’t. Mikey plugged into an overdriven amp, and I got behind the drum set and recorded the demo in one take. I immediately had ideas for melodies and harmonies to go with it, so I asked if we had time to try one more song. Greg started shutting down the equipment while Mikey was on the couch playing a riff I’d never heard before. We’d managed to finish a couple of demos, and we decided it was probably a good stopping point. How Greg became the custodian of this space is still a mystery, but it was full of amplifiers and microphones and completely ready for tracking.Īfter a few hours it was starting to get late. The room was a time capsule from the seventies, complete with wood paneling, shag rugs, and Mexican tile floors. It was off of Mulholland Drive in a guest house that had once belonged to Mick Fleetwood. The last day we were there, our friend Greg Hansen took us by the studio he was working at to show us around.
On the way home from a West Coast tour in 2018, Mikey and I stopped in LA for a weekend to see friends and celebrate his birthday. Read the stories that make up Carefree Theatre as you listen along, and watch the exclusive music video for “Parkland (Into the Silence)” below. In light of the release, Pitts broke down each song on the record for us. The group returned to South Florida to record Carefree Theatre, which is out now on Kanine Records. The album doesn’t only embody the nostalgia he still feels for it, but it reckons with the idea of coming full circle. Due to financial issues, it became abandoned, demolished, and, eventually, replaced. The album’s namesake is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Pitts spent his childhood. Surfer Blood frontman John Paul Pitts was on a mission to “write as many short pop songs as possible” on Carefree Theatre, their latest album, which clocks in at 35 minutes with eleven catchy tracks.
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