Previously:
From the first day of kindergarten to the last day of grade nine, I had a best friend. It was an intense, all-consuming friendship — think Heavenly Creatures without the matricide – and it ended as suddenly and intensely and all-consumingly as it began. She befriended a girl who had bullied me so viciously that I had to change schools and I, possessing less than admirable social skills — probably at least partially as the result of being bullied so viciously that I had to change schools — didn’t handle it well. I cut all ties and spent my entire summer vacation sobbing and listening to Bob Mould’s most biting and bitter songs.
I don’t know why I’m writing about this, though. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the subsequent two solid years I spent writing songs about broken friendships, death, guilt, and revenge.
The Drowned is probably my favorite angst-ridden cottage-based psychodrama from that period. It’s inspired by “Water” a deep cut from singer/songwriter Holly McNarland’s gold-selling 1997 debut album, Stuff, in the sense that I listened to the track about 6,000 times and then decided to write a story with water in it. But “Water” is a deeply haunting song that still gets under my skin almost 20 years later and avery worthy follow-up to her groundbreaking debut single, the almost incomparable “Stormy.” And The Drowned is, well, whatever this is.
Risky Fuel 