Out today is ‘My Medicine, the fifth single to be taken from the forthcoming debut album ‘These things are being gathered for the fire’, from former Wild Light and Arcade Fire co-founder Tim Kile, and we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today.
Although its a beautifully affecting slice of indie pop, there are darker subjects lurking around its edges. “There are a few different ways I think about the song’,” says Kile. “One is very literal and direct. I suffer from massive, debilitating depression. It runs in my family. My mom suffered horribly through the years. For all the stigma attached to people with brain illnesses and the medications used to treat them, it’s one of the biggest decisions in someone’s life to go on meds. No one wants to do it. You usually need to be in desperately bad shape before you submit.”
“I remember how she described when she finally went on meds,” he adds. “She called it ‘an awakening’. Suddenly she had new creativity, energy, health. That language stuck with me — ‘an awakening.’ It was the way you’d describe a religious conversion. There was something compelling to me about that, the combination of modern psychological medication with religious language, and I tried to write the song from that paradox. ‘The message in the wires in my mind, this dirt and spit – drop the scales from my eyes’.”
“That’s sort of the narrow, specific way of interpreting it,” Kile admits. “I can also see it in a more universal sense. It’s about what heals you, what fixes the damage, orders the chaos. It’s about not waiting for the next world. It’s here, it’s now, this world is the next world.”
Taking something from his previous bands, if nothing else a wilful melodic nature, My Medicine, with all its stilted piano, brushes of synth and wisps of backing harmonies, manages to hit a spot where it’s instantly loveable and uplifiting and yet, has just a little hint of the melancholy contained within.
Whether its the message that gets you, or the tunes, you need My Medicine in your lives. Check it out, here
Tim Kile serves up ‘My Medicine’
MEDIA PREVIEW: ‘MY MEDICINE’ [PRIVATE LINK]
The former Wild Light and Arcade Fire co-founder delivers a personal dose of indie-pop on February 17
The fifth and latest single from this spring’s debut album
These Are Things Being Gathered for the Fire
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Depression is hard to spot. It’s often hidden, tucked away in a person’s inner life, obscured by smiles and seeming normalcy that belie the trouble. “My Medicine” is the new single from Austin singer-songwriter Tim Kile, a bubbly indie-pop track with lush, glowing instrumentation bursting from the speakers with the confidence of springtime, but under the surface we find the Arcade Fire and Wild Light co-founder exploring a darker subject.
Along life’s journey, Kile saw how his mother’s perspective change when she received the help she needed.
However, the songwriter, who is set to release debut solo album These Things Are Being Gathered for the Fire in April, sees the song’s meaning with a certain flexibility too.
“That’s sort of the narrow, specific way of interpreting it,” Kile admits. “I can also see it in a more universal sense. It’s about what heals you, what fixes the damage, orders the chaos. It’s about not waiting for the next world. It’s here, it’s now, this world is the next world.”
“My Medicine” marks the 5th single from These Things Are Being Gathered for the Fire. Kile performed nearly every instrument on the LP, which has boasted four other riveting singles in its extended rollout: “Buddy Holly/Seazons,” “Holy Ghost,” “Nightbird,” and January’s “Witness”. Kile tackles themes of innocence, guilt, love, and creation, often leaning on religious metaphor and language. While it’s all heady stuff, Kile doesn’t want the listener to get bogged down in the details — especially when it pertains to a person’s medicine of choice.
“All that said,” Kile says with a laugh, “I am also totally satisfied with the song being interpreted as a weed anthem.”
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