Today I’m excited to share the new single from garage/punk rock band, Reckling, for their latest single called “Spitter.” The song will be the final track to be released as single from their four-track EP Human Nature, and showcases the great band chemistry these four musicians have together. Led by Kelsey Reckling, this band also includes drummer Max Keuhn (FIDLAR), guitarist Erik Jimenez (Together Pangea), and bassist Joey Mullen (Paramore/HalfNoise). Kelsey mentioned this about the final single:
Each song on the EP encompasses a different feeling that I think everyone can relate to or identify with…it’s human nature. ‘Spitter’ is literally about a girl spitting on me because she didn’t like me, but more generally, it’s about persevering through the difficult things in life. The song sorts through my own angry feelings that were brought on by somebody else’s misdirected emotions. The underlying themes in this EP move through feelings of indecision, guilt, and regret…but writing and playing the songs are a way of finding resolution, forgiveness, and surrender.
If you’re enjoying the direction the band took, you can purchase the EP and the accompanying vinyl here.
I was also able to catch up with the band for a quick interview about their EP and what comes next.
What made you choose “Spitter” as this new EP’s focus track/final single? What is its significance with regard to the full EP’s story?
I think I chose Spitter as the EP’s focus track because it was the first song I wrote of the bunch, and it taps into the essence of “human nature” (the EP title). It deals with very human emotions that I think don’t often enough get talked about: anger and jealousy. And the song is about learning how to brush those angry and jealous people off your shoulders, moving forward, and not engaging in the messiness of those emotions.
With Reckling being a group composed of some all-star LA rock alum, how would you describe the collaborative process behind this new EP? How did everything fall into place?
I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by so many incredible musicians and songwriters, and that I get to call them my friends. Because everyone who plays in my band are all in other, bigger bands, it then kind of depends on whoever is available to play the shows and stuff. I love playing music alongside these guys though — they’re the best. As far as the collaborative process though, I do write all of the songs myself, demo them out alone, and generally know how I want them to sound when it comes time for recording them. I’m not really a gear head, so usually I’ll try and describe how I want something to sound, and Erik (guitarist) will be like, “oh, you can achieve that with this pedal, or try putting your amp settings like this.” And with the recordings too, Danny Nogueiras, who recorded and mixed the songs, I just showed him a bunch of songs where I was like, “I like this snare sound” or “I like the vocal effects on this song” and he knew exactly what to do to get the sound I wanted. So it definitely helps working alongside people who are well-seasoned, haha.
For anyone who has yet to listen to Reckling, how would you best describe your sound in the context of this Human Nature, and how does this EP relate to what is to come?
I would describe the sound as raw, straight-forward, a little bit aggressive, but also a little bit sweet. Someone recently described my vocals as “imperfectly perfect” and I dig that. This EP is sort of a “part one” of what’s to come…so stick around for part two!
With regard to touring and playing shows, which songs off this EP have you been most excited to play? Will that Bad Brains cover ever see the stage, or has it already?
I think “In My Hair” has been really fun to play live. But “Verbalize”…whenever we play it live, it totally transports me back to the time and the original feelings I had when writing it, which is pretty special, and kinda takes me for a wild little ride. And yes! The Bad Brains cover sees the stage quite a bit, and has become sort of a staple in our set. It all started with doing a Halloween set in 2019 where we chose Bad Brains. I remember our drummer suggesting it, and I was like hell yeah! And then after we agreed to do it, I was like…wait, how are we gonna pull this off? But we did and honestly it was sick! So since then, we’d throw a Bad Brains cover in our regular set. We mixed it up – sometimes we’d play “Attitude,” or “The Regulator,” or “How Low Can A Punk Get?” But we kept with “How Low?” and decided to record it for the EP.