🔦
a shaky, soft, and sinister concept album about a man named Norm and their relentless obsession of an unnamed character. Perfect ’gotcha’ album for the people in your life who don’t pick up on lyrics right away.
Related Recs
⭐
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
yeah yeah yeah call me a normie or whatever. i was listening to rocket when most of you were but twinkles in the eyes of your fathers. he's the voice of a generation. such a unique songwriter, his style is often emulated but never wholesale surpassed. he's incredible. nothing & i mean nothing will ever measure up to listening to gnaw for the first time.
LYRICS
--
You never met me
I don't think anyone has
But we can still be laid up together
the sugarhouse picked up the tab
I won't be forgotten
They'll have to bury me in the sand
When our children go digging for answers
I hope they can put me together again
--
Had a dream about a promised land
Walk around with a big gun in my hand
& when I look you in the eye
You're gonna tell me that you love me & hold me tight
'Cause you know that I have no fear
Ain't gonna walk into the river & disappear
--
I paint pictures of my heart
the colors blue & purple start to bleed into an endless dark
it's only you, it's only you
--
I think about him a lot. He's my favorite artist doing it right now. I'm so happy he's so successful now. My only sorrow is how expensive it is to see him live, and how qickly tickets sell out!
May 21, 2024
Everything about this song and album. A friend of mine put me on to this and I still remember the night I listened to the whole thing. Life altering shit!!! A no-skips album.
The freedom your being sold is just submission
Wanna keep you content and under supervision
They got you convinced that ignorance is bliss in
Some ever-changing mind
Erasing human condition
I don’t have time to worry about if I am trapped and if there’s any way out
I don’t have time
Word. ✍️
Oct 3, 2024
Top Recs from @ambrose
🫂
one day they’ll be gone and we’re not all so lucky enough to say good bye so love with your whole self ok
Feb 8, 2024
⚰️
Nothing better then waking up to reap what you sow. Future-me has no idea what’s in-store.
Feb 1, 2024