PREMIERE: SAFETY TOWN RELEASES NEW SINGLE & MUSIC VIDEO 'BLOOM' - FAKE IT LP OUT 11/12 VIA EARTH LIBRARIES
Read our Q&A with Safety Town on the new single and music video for ‘Bloom’, and get the details on the debut LP out this November!
Chicago electro-pop icon Jackson Davis is back with a brand new single for Safety Town. ‘Bloom’ offers feel-good dream pop, with influences from The Postal Service showing in the well crafted synths throughout.
Alongside the single and music video comes the announcement of Safety Town’s debut album, Fake It, due for release November 12th via Earth Libraries. Curated during a pre-pandemic isolation, Fake It offers Safety Town’s best work yet - a collection of songs that progress further than ever before, and covers topics such as anxiety and worry despite their upbeat and lighthearted melodies.
Read below for our Q&A with Safety Town on the new single and music video for ‘Bloom’, and get the details on the debut LP out this November!
WHAT INSPIRED THE SONG?
“This song was really inspired by the tones and songwriting that arose as I started to experiment more with hardware synthesis and ways to songwrite under their limitations and strengths. Out of the whole album, I’d say this song is least inspired by any particular artist. I had been listening to a lot of Animal Collective and LCD Soundsystem and tried to inject the growing energy they work with, while still writing something that very much felt like myself and personal preferences. The song started with the general outline of the verse and choruses and slowly evolved under months of revision and change. For the most part I tried to bring more modern production techniques into my traditional sound.”
WHO PRODUCED IT? WHAT WAS THE RECORDING PROCESS LIKE?
This song was fully written and produced by myself, with some additional mixing in the final phases by fellow Chicago musician Chris Mathien.
The recording experience was a blast for most of it until the finishing touches. This was one of the first songs I created by using a strong combination of software recording synced with hardware synths. I set up all the lead and bass sequences on an Arturia Keystep Pro and was able to just let the notes play while I had freedom to add energy to the song by live adjusting all the knobs and parameters as it recorded. When it came to adding lyrics it was a struggle figuring out the right melody, but ended up being cathartic expressing my frustrations with loss and depressive tendencies.
Working in a style that was very synth based but still within traditional pop structures was a very rewarding experience. At the end, as I was finishing up other songs I recruited some help from the beyond talented Chicago musician Chris Mathien, who brought some interesting perspective and changes to the song, such as more slowly adding elements in the intro and really building towards the introduction of lyrics before all parts were brought in. Working with him really helped me power through the final phases of production.
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE SONG?
While the song does not really offer solutions, and I’d like to think future songs on the album do, I want people to pick up on the dichotomy and possibility of existence between loss and sadness juxtaposed with an upbeat melodic happiness. These two feelings can simultaneously exist and I find that most people operate in this way, it’s ok to push negative thoughts out of your mind at times as well as finding ways to sugarcoat them and express them in ways that sort of express the confusion one may have.
WAS THERE A PARTICULAR MOOD YOU WERE TRYING TO CAPTURE? A STORY YOU WERE TRYING TO SELL?
The beginning of the song tries to focus on the addition of elements and a slow growth towards adding all the parts, before kicking in the full drums and lyrics. The song aims to express the ideas of trying to find growth and happiness in spite of loss and change.
While purposefully cryptic the gist of the lyrics express how after the loss of an individual, we find ways to move forward but there will always be persistent reminders and triggers that creep up and make you reflect on these events. While the song has an upbeat tone it is pretty somber in subject matter, and as the album goes on I attempt to cover a wide range of emotions and ways we as humans process and deal with life.
