Philadelphia songwriter Curtis Cooper is prepping the follow up to their 2016 debut record Laughing In Lane. Cooper often offers up deeply personal music with much of the lyrical themes tied closely to their life. Messy is the upcoming record that’s described by Cooper as pretty morose”, with many of the tracks serving as releases for negative thoughts.

The first single, Percs of Life, is seeped in struggles that cut deep with many. The lyrics’ subject matter deals with the effects of addiction and its hold on those afflicted and those who are close. Dealing with their own demons and struggles, Cooper illustrates the control drugs hold over who are addicted.

Moving from a whispery yet bent melody, the track freefalls into an imploding breakdown that’s invigorated with a cathartic mantra for sobriety (“live life sober again). Relating to the song’s heavy subject matter, the video depicts Cooper going about the day with pills coming from every crevasse of the mundane, the shower, sandwiches, and payment for a show. While being able to function for most of the day, things begin to unspool as the night goes on.

Words from Curtis on the track and video:

Percs of Life is about the effects of pill addiction on people. It can take over your body and turns you into a zombie. It makes you do things that you aren’t doing for yourself, but for your addiction. I think things like alcohol and pills are even more dangerous than things like cocaine because they’re seen as legal which makes them seem harmless. I’ve lost a couple of friends to opiate addiction, whether it was them dying or me needing to cut them out of my life. I’ve had people I loved steal from me to get high…. I know better now, and I value sobriety in friendship now more than ever. I do NOT mean to condemn people who are using, this is more of a condemnation of the doctors over-prescribing and pharmaceutical companies who refuse to use alternatives to opiates, such as marijuana. I definitely wrote this song for myself to hear, so I don’t know if anyone else is gonna listen to it, but the video certainly makes a point about how dangerous pills can be.

Messy is out soon with a record release show set for Friday, January 19th at Johnny Brenda’s with Laser Background and Coping Skills.


2017-11-06