It’s always a good feeling to circle back to artists you have supported previously and see that they continue to make great music. Such is the case with indie rock shoegaze outfit I Am a Rocketship , who we last visited upon the release of their superb 2021 album ‘Lies and Legends’. Now the dream duo are back with a new single. While it would originally seem to be a question and ultimately seems to be rhetorical because the authors already know the answer, ‘Do You Feel Good’, is a potent and pensive song. Clocking in at nearly four and half minutes, this seems quite appropriate as they’ve certainly got something to say in his composition and say it well they really do.
Welcome back Eric Weissinger and L E Kippner. While I Am a Rocketship is a self-contained duo (writing, recording, and creating art and videos themselves), this single represents the first time they have enlisted an outside contributor – Kellii Scott. Perhaps best known as the drummer for the legendary band Failure and his work with other artists, including Veruca Salt, Dr. Dre, Pink, Enemy and Christina Aguilera.
The first offering of new album ‘La Cruella’, out in August, ‘Do You Feel Good’ is about how people transform into their perceived personas – from folks wanting to dress like Instagram influencers when they travel, to politicians creating fictional back stories, this song asks if you truly feel good once you are an artificial construct. The video itself involves a mish-mash of images that, upon reflection, are well chosen. Given the multiple avenues of mind manipulation, with millions regularly sucked in and regurgitating the false plastic expectations, inorganic benchmarks, cookie-cutter images and personality templates, this song hits the nail on the head in exploring out-of-control of our modern-day society.
“We tried a different way of writing songs for this album, and it turned out that every song had a story. Since our musical style has changed a bit with this album, the way that the lyrics tell those stories has changed as well. These songs don’t spell out what is happening but are about feelings. We hope people will find something to recognize, maybe feel that one of the song speaks to them,” says frontwoman L E Kippner.
“It was fun adding Kelli’s drums to our sound. He recorded the drums separately and the final song didn’t end up at all like we expected because when we heard the drums it inspired a lot of changes to the rest. I wouldn’t mind doing more collaborative work in the future.”
Before I Am a Rocketship, Eric Weissinger was a bassist and guitarist backing up various artists and opening for the likes of The Wedding Present, The Black Crowes and James. Everything changed due to a chance meeting with L E Kippner – cellist, scientist, radio DJ and singer for Swedish synth-pop duo Neobox. After forming Hitchcock Blondes in Ohio, they relocated to Atlanta to try new ideas and launched I Am a Rocketship, for which their music has been warmly met across the world.
‘La Cruella’ will be the band’s sixth major release, following their 2016 debut album ‘Mission Control’, the ‘Mind Grafitti’ album (2019), ‘Ghost Stories’ album (2020), the ‘oRAnGE’ EP (2020) and the latest long-player ‘Lies and Legends’ (2021).
“We just let go on this album, and often jokingly said “well, this is going to kill any reputation we had.” It’s very pure, for want of a better term. We just wrote what we felt,” explains Eric Weissinger.
“This album is more improvisational than the others. A lot of the instrumental tracks were first takes, no punches or correcting. I wouldn’t say there was less thought put into this, but it was less planned than our other albums.”
As of June 13, ‘Do You Feel Good’ is available as a Bandcamp exclusive. On August 4, the full ‘La Cruella’ album will be released on all fine music platforms, including Spotify andApple Music.
CREDITS
Written and performed by Eric Weissinger and L E Kippner
Drums by Kellii Scott on ‘Do You Feel Good’
© 2023 My Long Wknd, LLC
except ‘Heaven Tonight’ written by Rick Nielsen & Tom Petersson © Adult Music, Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.
Recorded at The Barry Patch by Eric Weissinger
Video by Eric Weissinger
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