The Coast’s new lead-off single is strangely titled ‘Killing Off Our Friends’.
Despite being an accessible, heart-wrenching pop tune, the song is extremely dark, as if the trials of being away from loved ones on tour ruptures relationships, rather than temporarily pauses them.
Endearing, catchy-as-hell pop
“We have a friend named Lindsay who we don’t get to see very much,”explains vocalist Ben Spurr. “She speaks almost entirely in metaphors, using a fair amount of other people’s song lyrics. She’s really an extraordinary person. One day she was talking to Luke (Melchiorre – bass) and told him to be careful not to kill off his friends with this lifestyle. At the time we had some close friends who were slipping away from us, and I wanted to write about how letting friends go is one way of killing them off, and how it is crap but inevitable. So the song’s kind of about dying, but in a happy, more jubilant way.”
Such are the themes with The Coast; introspection, self-awareness and discovery, but instead of clutching each emotional lyric in an emotional melody, the Toronto quartet free their music from major-toned hyperbole, preferring to relax the chord progressions, as if each verse is taking a deep breath as it passes.
This has resulted in the ‘Killing Off Our Friends EP’, a precursor to their eponymous long player titled ‘Expatriate’, already out in Canada and gracing our shores in January. The album, landing on Aporia Records in both territories, culminated in a fair amount of slogging
around the homeland, touring an independently released EP and honing their sound on the road, the same place where much of the influence of the writing comes from. “When we first got really serious about the band two or three years ago, I think the goal was to get someone to pay us to make a record, and be able to go on tour,” asserts Spurr. “Still, we wanted to make a record that spoke for itself and one that was loaded with what we were feeling while recording.
An accessible, heart-wrenching pop tune
/blockquote>“To me personally, this record speaks to a feeling of being not only disappointed with yourself, but also disappointed in other people. A lot of the songs speak about being unhappy in general to be honest, as at times one is unable to get beyond those circumstances and relationships. But with us, most of the questions and problems on the record are never answered or resolved on this record. That was never the point. The point is in the process of dealing with it.”
So now The Coast take the endearing, catchy-as-hell pop on the road, hitting both the UK and the mainland for the first time this Autumn. “If we have any success across the pond we will be back most promptly. I simply cannot wait to get over there and see what happens.” Sources say, judging on the EP and forthcoming full-length, that success for these Canadians is guaranteed.