Today is a great day to share the lead single from the newly announced LP by Boston noise rock band, Eldridge Rodriguez, called “A Feeling That Won’t Go Away.” The song comes from the band’s fifth album, Atrophy, that will be released via Midriff Records on September 15th. On this latest single, the band channels their love for a “wall of sound” approach to their songwriting while still leaving room for the listener to make their own interpretations of the music. If you’re enjoying the direction the band took on this latest track, please consider purchasing music from their Bandcamp page. I was also able to catch up with this talented band for a brief interview below.
Many of the songs on the upcoming project, Atrophy, were recorded in the midst of the pandemic. In what ways does “A Feeling That Won’t Go Away” reflect experiences and lessons from that time period?
It was one of the first tracks we started recording during the shut down. Maybe because it was one of the most simple, structurally. I wrote it pretty quickly and we recorded it pretty quickly. I think we (the Royal “we”) sometimes over complicated things by trying to over perform or overthink or make things too academic to show people how clever we are. When a more simple approach and the road of least resistance and effort winds up bringing a better, more natural result. Everyone was sick, scared or dying during the height of the pandemic and to over intellectualize your own songs felt petty, narcissistic and tasteless. So when writing during this time I would tend to go with first instincts and bang out songs because I was in this real position of privilege, to have this outlet and studio and band mates to work with during a time when other people were locked down or without access to basics and losing loved ones. End of the day, it’s just your thoughts put to music, and maybe that isn’t the most important or healthy thing to spend time on and over analyze during a crisis. The whole album has this approach, which I think lends to it possibly being more accessible than our previous albums.
What is, exactly, the “feeling that won’t go away?” What does that feeling mean to the band?
It’s a feeling of benign hopelessness. A feeling that no matter how hard you want something to be true it can still be unreachable and resigning yourself to being okay with that. It’s being satisfied with what you don’t have. It’s acceptance of the things beyond your control. You can despise a system while still living your life to its fullest. It’s cheerfully giving yourself over to defeat.
How does this single fit in with, or stand out from, the other tracks on the upcoming record, Atrophy?
It’s one of the noisiest tracks on the album. I think it’s one of the ones that best reflects the reputation and discord of the time that it was written. It’s still traditionally poppy but we layered it with some heroic waves of feedback while underneath is this tiny classical nylon stringed guitar that pops up every so often, like it’s desperately breaking the surface to get air. I like that juxtaposition. We kind of tried to carry that through on all the album tracks.
There’s an incredible vocal performance by Erica Manton on the outro section of the track. What can you say about this collaboration?
Dave was doing a remix of an Ex-Hyena track at his studio, Bluetone in Somerville, Ma. He wanted a big voice, pop/disco type performance for the outro to give an upbeat, positive ending for what was otherwise a dirge. He reached out to Mike Quinn for recommendations and Mike had worked with Erica and recommended her. She came in and killed it. So Dave asked her to do that ending part for us. Dave kept the session a secret from us until mix down. It really blew us away. It was a really nice surprise and kind of makes the song for me.