The whimsical whistling and the playful, pop guitars that fuel the new Single File single, “Girlfriends,” are either oddly misleading or smartly ironic.
The song is about desperation — ignored friendships, substance abuse and the objectification of multiple women (at the same time). And despite all the gloom, the Weezeresque single is a cheerful musical joyride, a song with flashy harmonies that beg to be sung along with and addictive riffs that are meant for radio saturation.
Irony is alive and well with the Westminster-based Single File, which is finally releasing its major label debut, “Common Struggles,” on Tuesday, nearly two years after signing to Reprise Records. While the pop trio has been gigging out and touring semi-regularly, including a CD release show at the Gothic Theatre tonight, there are more specific reasons for the delay of the band’s debut full-length. And you only have to look as far as singles “Girlfriends” or “Mannequin Loveseat” to get the backstory.
We talked with Sloan Anderson, the band’s singer-guitarist and lead songwriter, about overcoming the problems in his music and in his life to create one of the most dynamic and infectious pop records of 2009.
Q: Why the delay on the release of the record?
A: It wasn’t just the red tape and bureaucracy of being on a major label. I went downhill and hit rock bottom and got stuck in a major writer’s block.
Q: What do you mean by “rock bottom?”
A: Without going too deep into it and being too blunt, fear got the best of us in that scenario, and we did the best we could to stay self-medicated and in the delusional bubble that we were all in.
Q: So where were you at this point, and for how long?
A: I was locked in my basement for the better part of a year, and nothing came.
Q: It sounds bad.
A: It got pretty rough and dark for a while. The record is upbeat and cheery and ironic when you look at it from our perspective at that time. But we’d stopped caring if the label gave a (expletive) what we were writing. But I finally got out of my own head and stopped caring what anybody else thought — the label and my bandmates — and I focused on my role, which is the lyrics and the melody. Out of that rock bottom experience came ‘Common Struggles.’ We’re not pretending that we’ve gone through something especially unique. It’s part of the human condition.
Q: Not only is it part of the human condition, but it’s also a pretty common experience for a young band cutting its first record for a major label.
A: I’m guessing it’s pretty normal. I wondered that as I was writing myself: ‘I wonder how many people go through this exact same thing in this condition?’ As a songwriter, mine might have been an extreme case. I didn’t write more than a handful of words in a year. And then in a three-week window, it all came flooding in. It felt so good compared to getting messed up every night, rotting away and pretending to be somebody I wasn’t.
Q: There are a couple of older songs on ‘Common Struggles,’ including ‘Zombies Ate My Neighbors’ and ‘Melody of You,’ both of which are familiar to Colorado fans because of their popularity on Channel 93.3, KTCL/93.3-FM.
A: ‘Zombies’ and Melody of You’ are definitely the sore thumbs, but they fit the record really well and fit the themes of distance and loneliness. We also really wanted the rest of the world to hear those songs. Outside of Denver, nobody has heard those songs.
Q: Spin called ‘Mannequin Loveseat’ ‘ironically cheery.’ How does that register with you?
A: The whole record is ironic. It’s all positive sentiment in the midst of muck and rotting away. It’s a sense of humor mixed with worst case scenarios. It’s a whole album of contradictory ideas that somehow go really well together.
For the entire Q&A with Single File’s Sloan Anderson — including the stories behind the girls of “Girlfriends” and the fights with label A&R guys — see .
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
Single File
Pop CD release show. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood with the Epilogues, Set Forth and the Frequent Sea. Tonight. 7. $12.
