It’s been a busy week of streaming action at the Deciblog and we’re closing it out with yet another premiere.
We’re happy to present the track “Champions” off Sandrider’s forthcoming album Godhead (out November 19). Check out Facebook to learn more about an upcoming appearance on KEXP and get tour dates.
Here’s guitarist and vocalist Jon Weisnewski’s take on the track:
The starting riff on is one that was stuck in my head for weeks before I ever actually even picked up a guitar to play it. It was probably planted in there from listening to Wipers or Drive Like Jehu.
The second chunk of the song where it opens up and goes into the solo was kind of a natural part that materialized as I was playing with the first section. The last section of the song took a while to solidify. The first incarnation was pretty complex, had some weird timing, and unnatural chord changes that you kind of had to force your hands to do. It was a cool progression but once we tried to play it together it felt forced and unintuitive, completely opposite of the rest of the song. So we stripped it way down to its core and I think it was a good call. The song flows much better now.
The song is about those self destructive impulses we all get like: “What if I just punch this guy right now?” or “What if I jump out that window?” The idea hit me while driving over the I-90 bridge, when I had that sudden impulse to just crank the wheel and go into Lake Washington. I’m not depressed or suicidal at all, but those thoughts just hit you out of nowhere all the time. The lyrics are kind of saying that if we all knew someone actually did it based on that split second impulse they’d probably go down in history as some kind of urban legend champion.
Preorder Godhead from Good To Die Records.
