Singled Out: We Are Scientists' The Big One

We Are Scientists just released their brand new album "Qualifying Miles", and to celebrate we asked Keith Murray to tell us about the latest single "The Big One". Here is the story:

We really wanted Qualifying Miles to be a celebration of the kind of indie rock that we grew up on - sort of that Pavement/Weezer/Smashing Pumpkins vibe that really defined our high school years. I don't think any of the songs on the record really sound much like those bands, but there's something about "The Big One" that I think encapsulates the vibe of that era, at least. Those jangly lead guitar bits on the verses that are simultaneously harmonically pretty but very nearly dissonant really evokes a Lemonheads sensibility for me and, well, of course a big, thundering, fuzzed out chorus doesn't hurt the 90s vibes either.

Lyrically it's a bit of a funny one, I guess. It's somewhat about my tendency to experience dramatic moments at arms length; to react to something that ought to be actively confrontational as more of a quick lesson to be learned. More specifically, it's about knowing someone well enough to allow that familiarity to lull you into the belief that you can anticipate anything that might happen between you, going forward, or that anything you're going through now is iterative of something you've hashed out in the past. It's always crazy when you're in that mindset and it suddenly becomes clear that a conflict is very real and raw and needs to be met head-on.

Chris [Cain, bass guitarist] and I lived in California for a while, which is where a lot of our mutual earliest influences originated - again, here I'm thinking about Pavement, Weezer, Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Creeper Lagoon, Jane's Addiction. Anyway, when you're in California, you know there are going to be tiny earthquakes that occur now and then. It's a fact of life, there. Sometimes you don't even really notice them, you just hear about them on the news later and think, "Oh yeah, is that why my coffee cup jostled slightly at 9 AM this morning?" After you've been there long enough, you start to become complacent about the fact that the earth has literally been moving suddenly and dramatically below your feet without you even really noticing. The idea that a catastrophic version of such a thing is not only probable but is essentially inevitable recedes into the cognitive background. So to force the simile, it's a little bit like personal relationships. After a while, you may have been through many minor emotional tremors in the past, but you're never really quite prepared for "The Big One."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

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