Ahead of the release of his new album Anthem Sprinter (November 1, Tooth & Nail Records), we asked John Van Deuseun to tell us more about the album.
1 – How Now, Spirit?
This song is a true intro to Anthem Sprinter. I was looking for something simple that would offer a thesis for the album and “I am haunting my own house” felt like an appropriate way to summarize this group of songs. One interesting production note: the “gang” vocals in the second verse that sound like women and children singing are really just me singing through pitch shifters.
2 – Comeback Wrecker
I wrote this chorus when I was 14. I turned 37 in October, for some context! I like how loud and fast this song is and I think Braydn’s drumming on this song is rock perfection. The opening riff of this song may be my favorite guitar part I’ve ever written. It’s fun to play.
3 – Before You Fade Away
This is the newest song on the album; I wrote it three years ago. It’s about losing someone to mental health and suicide, so it’s a heavy topic lyrically. The music is so straightforward and sometimes I laugh at how poppy it is but truthfully I am glad it’s so simple. If you take the recording and speed it up it sounds uncannily like Avril Lavigne. Which is fantastic.
4 – DD
This is a pop punk song about leaving a party and sitting awkwardly in the passenger seat as your designated driver doesn’t speak to you. I wanted it to sound like the Thermals and Blue era Weezer.
5 – Lust Tripper
I really love how fast this song is. It’s probably the song on the album that lets me show my love for early 80’s XTC most clearly. I enjoy the 12 string guitars in this track and the drumming is so frantic, it gets me pumped.
6 – If Only
This song started with a drum machine and the bass part. It just felt good to play so I started singing along after looping it. It’s a song about being depressed and withdrawing from relationships, especially the people that could actually help you escape the melancholy and gloom. I’ve always been amazed at how I (and those around me) avoid healthy relationship when depressed. It’s one of the most sinister aspects of depression, in my opinion.
7 – Why Do You Love Me?
If I’m totally honest, this is a song written to God. It’s basically me saying to a higher power, “how could you ever love someone like me?” “Why would you make someone like me?” I think that many people have a moment where their self worth is so low and they question whether or not they’re lovable. Musically, I just wanted this chorus to sound like Bob Mould. Big guitars with a chorus hook that’s almost buried under the guitar fuzz.
8 – My Regret is a Pit
I started writing this song at Sound City while recording the third Lonely Forest album. I was having a difficult time with where my life was headed and I just kind of felt like giving up, or as the lyrics say “I am almost ready to drown”. My favorite part of the song is the instrumental outro into the noise section.
9 – Meat
I’ve never written such literal lyrics in my life. I wrote it immediately after the experience and I was trying to capture the feeling I had of being a neighbor and friend who is looking into someone else’s nightmare situation of deep suffering. It’s hard to know what to say and what to feel when you witness someone else’s agony in such a way. Obviously I found myself reaching a fairly bleak conclusion about death and being human.
10 – Trebuchet
I love the album ending on this note. It finishes everything with another thesis, which this time is the platitude “this is the lesson of the century; don’t waste your youth on hollow memories.” I like the guitar playing and drumming quite a bit and I enjoy the song stretching out and extending itself in unusual ways. This song includes some of my favorite lyrics I’ve ever written. I really like “I don’t hate you anymore, I don’t love you any less” and “If it’s brains and wit that turns you on I’m off”. Anthem Sprinter is filled with lyrics about relationships coming to sudden and sad endings, so this song feels like the only true way to finish off the album. It just ends with no guitar trail or cymbal decay and that makes me happy.