Do you remember what it felt like to wake up each morning as a child — what your first thoughts were before the day began? Pine Barons captures this universal, but often forgotten experience in “Frantic Francis,” released Tuesday, February 28th.
The track marks Pine Barons’ first output since 2022’s I LOVE FISH, and features a strong, thrumming bassline and a whimsical ambience that crescendos into color. The lyrics feel straight out of a sleepy child’s curious mind: “I’ve been asleep for so long / there’s a lighthouse in the room, it’s only spinning / and if I laugh hard enough / I might break out into song, and just keep singing.”
“After the I LOVE FISH project, I’ve approached songwriting for Pine Barons differently, putting more emphasis on patience, simplicity and really letting a song breathe,” says frontman and multi-instrumentalist KC Abrams. While hinged on an interesting topic for reflection — the newness that comes with each day as a child — “Frantic Francis” is as uncomplicated as the thoughts that would spring to our heads in the early hours.
The music video released alongside the track is similarly simple and provides a dreamlike visual pairing. Abrams slowly makes his way down residential streets obscured by fog and sings to no one in particular, or maybe to himself — sometimes swaying his stride or stretching as he goes. He spins around in childlike wonder as the camera pans away and the hypnotic sequence ends, reminding viewers that “This is just a dream… this is all a dream.”
Pine Barons is an inspired, experimental indie rock project you won’t want to miss. You can explore their entire discography on all your favorite streaming platforms. Find “Frantic Francis” and more great music Alchemical Records’ Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify and Youtube.
Emma Downes is a recent graduate of DeSales University in Center Valley, PA, where she studied English and Communication. As a lifelong writer and music lover, she is happy to be incorporating both into her work for Alchemical Records. When she’s not writing, she enjoys getting to know the DMV entertainment scene, drawing, and spending time with her four siblings.
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