Dear Anxious is a song I have struggled to write about while reflecting because it's just so damn uplifting. Not only is it uplifting, it's also stern and I think that sternness is breathing down my neck at my lowest sometimes. Guilt avoision?
It wasn't always so noble, though. I started writing it after being inspired by my friend Samantha Benvissuto. She sent me a rough of what she called the 'fuck song,' and so I initially set out to write something sexy and bombed. I think the original guitar line is sexy and it has this syncopation that feels intrinsic to how I write, but nothing else about it was really like anything I'd done before. It was very much inspired by the amount of Incubus I was listening to at that time as well
The vocal is something I'm incredibly proud of as the melody stretched my abilities as a vocalist more than just about any other piece on this album, I remember screaming it in a barn in Upstate New York while Polina insisted I repeat the lines over and over, and that level of motivation made its way into the final lyrics.
Lyrically the song started out just horrendously. I'm not sure I'll ever be capable of delivering anything sexy and intimate in that fashion with any level of real conviction and I'm not sure anyone would buy it if I tried, so the lyrics ended up changing direction motivated by my return into the Bleeding Disorder Community. I grew up in it, left it, then returned, and that was a lot of emotion to handle and in its way this is the thread that told me I had a real story to tell. This is the song that told me I had an album instead of a collection of songs to stagger.
lyrics
At your hand you command the power should you ever choose
to reframe all your pain as a better kind of truth
get a clue, a tattoo, a lesson learned and there’s the proof
self aware, now you care, on the hook so follow through
put your pride to the side and you might find the fortitude
to defy prying eyes no surprise they’re trained on you
understand how to stand, leo sun and virgo moon
set the mood, name the tune, lead the way they’ll follow you
don’t deny the what you have found
build the kingdom tall upon the blood and sound
come around to the sound it’s calling homeward bound
come around, come around, midfall before you hit the ground
come to learn come to learn come to learn with eyes anew
come around to astound spread your wings and drop the ‘tude
It goes further than you know
Share your world dear anxious share and watch it grow
Fuzzy Austin trio follow up their first album in 20 years, released in Spring 2015, with a stomping new EP of noisy rock & roll. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 26, 2016
Big, clanging psych-rock from this Arizona outfit fuses monk-like vocals with slow-winding guitars for songs that feel like strange hymns. Bandcamp New & Notable May 2, 2016