"Anxiety" is the latest and final single from the upcoming album System Update by Sloan Brothers, the long-time-coming debut from Sloan Simpson and many, many musical friends. The project is a pandemic-inspired product. Simpson has spent many years as a recordist, documenting the live performances in and around Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. When COVID shut venues down, Simpson started to find his own voice as a songwriter. When he was ready to record himself, his friends were there to lend their talents.
Describing the origins of "Anxiety," Simpson
tells music discovery website It's Psychedelic Baby, "At age 20, I was a passenger in a car that rolled over around sunrise when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. I made it out with only a broken collarbone, but the incident touched off what turned out to be a lifelong battle with anxiety and depression. This song is about how I always imagine my car leaving the road while I'm driving, how that anxiety extends to the rest of my life, and how medicines can only do so much for it. I liked the idea of setting that bummer concept to a dance beat."
As for the performers on the track, Simpson explains, "I had been recording Kevin Sweeney and his band Hayride in concert for years, as well as hanging out and bothering Kevin, so he was an obvious choice for lead guitar. I couldn't pull off the rhythm guitar part myself, but I knew that Jason NeSmith of Casper & The Cookies would be able to, and he did. Derek Almstead plays multiple instruments, but his bass playing in Faster Circuits was especially fine, so I wanted some of that here. Carlton Owens of Cracker plays on the entire album, but this one in particular is elevated by his presence."
[VIDEO]:
https://youtu.be/MG10wOxXUT4
[STREAM]:
https://fanatic.lnk.to/SloanBrothers-LoveYouSoGood
"My mother would say 'love you so good' rather than 'love you so much,'" explains Sloan Simpson about the new Sloan Brothers single, streaming now via
The Big Takeover. "Just as a family Southernism, and it stuck with me again after my sister (a progressive Baptist minister in Michigan) mentioned it in her eulogy at my mother's funeral."
Simpson continues, "I decided to consider the phrase part of my inheritance and built this song around it. All the singers on this choked up when recording their parts."
Featured collaborators on "Love You So Good" include Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez (Drive-By Truckers), Robert Schneider (The Apples In Stereo), David Barbe (Sugar), and Carlton Walker Owens (Cracker).
In its premiere coverage of the Erica Strout-directed video for the song,
Treble calls the track "infectiously fuzzy pop with a lot of warmth and sadness alike," saying the video is "suitably psychedelic" and "both heartbreaking and richly accessible, a loving tribute to Simpson's mother that'll likely bring a tear to your eye."
System Update, the debut album by Sloan Brothers arrives on May 13th via Science Project Records, preceded by the singles "Songs Like This" (Feb. 11th), "Love You So Good" (March 11th), and "Anxiety" (April 15th). Sloan Simpson is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
Pictured: Sloan Simpson
Photo Credits: John Lee Matney.
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