As we recently noted, John Klein revived his Euphoria Again project back in 2021 with the Lifetime LP, a shift from near-ambient slacker rock sounds and cartoons-on-drugs imagery popular during Wavves’ reign in the early 2010s into something much more mature. His newly released third album Waiting on Time to Fly is a more fully realized version of this new chapter, leaning into trends in contemporary Americana while also pulling in influences unique to his experience: an upbringing of desert landscapes, the zoned-out bars of Yung Lean, and just a taste of sophisti-pop charm courtesy of an old friend of Klein’s on sax. Additionally, he cites Knifeplay bandmates Johanna Baumann and Max Black as key players in Waiting on Time to Fly’s unique sound, the former listed as engineer on the record and the latter as keyboardist.
Paired with Klein and company’s sonic landscapes are lyrics born of abstraction, yet mostly shaped into coherent narratives that mirror the songwriter’s growth over the past decade—both as a musician and as an individual. Klein compares writing these songs to cleaning a dirty mirror, leaning into the blurry abstraction of words and images only to wipe away the grime and ultimately see his own reflection. “The best part of making music, to me, is having zero expectations going in, and when it’s all over just being so high,” he shares, clarifying that he’s referring to the high provided by the music itself. “Drugs are awesome, but getting to make music and having these rare moments is much much better.”
With the LP out now via Born Losers Records, stream the whole thing below and read through Klein’s track-by-track breakdown. You can also purchase the record here.
1. “Sky Remembers”
A lot of these songs just come from imagining an image and rolling with that. If there’s any song that feels like the album cover, it’s this one.
2. “Las Cruces”
Wrote this one when I was on tour with Knifeplay and we had an off day in Las Cruces—such a beautiful place that inspired me as I sat on the back patio of our Airbnb and looked out across the desert as the sun set. Being from Utah I’ve always felt connected to the desert landscape, feels like home.
3. “Mother’s Eyes”
Had a bit of a Yung Lean obsession the winter I wrote this record—sub bass on this one was definitely inspired by his music. Definitely one of my favorites from the record. Shout out Jonatan Leandoer.
4. “One More Time”
“One more ’til nothing but smiles” is a lyric that’s definitely tongue-in-cheek. Whenever I write a song that’s from a place of melancholy, I can’t help but put a little light on it, however unrealistic that might seem. I guess it’s just my personality to attempt to reach for something higher when I’m down instead of leaning into woe-is-me.
5. “If an Angel Were a Ghost”
One of my favorites from the record. Love the sax on this one. We had my friend Derrick, who I played in jazz band growing up with, track sax for a bunch of songs on the record and ended up not going with most of it, just because the songs didn’t call for it, but this one it just took it to another level. A lot of this record was like that—just trying a bunch of different things and kind of whittling it all back, trying not to overdo it, but also experiment and have fun.
6. “Pulling Stars Down”
This one’s a breakup song, and for that reason I was hesitant to put it on the record. But my engineer [Johanna Baumann] cried when we recorded it so I took that as a sign to get over my insecurity and roll with it. There’s a few songs like that on this record where I showed them to other people basically saying, “Yeah, I think I’m gonna pull it from the record,” and I got convinced otherwise. Funny how the stuff that can make me cringe is what others are like, “That’s the best one!” Trying to learn from that.
7. “White Light and Wind”
Another one I was gonna pull, but I was wrong again, kept it, and it’s one of my favorites. I don’t know what this song is about. The way I write is I grab a feeling and start singing and some story starts to come out. Usually when it’s all over it makes sense to me, but it definitely is an abstract process. Almost like cleaning a dirty mirror.
8. “Three Legged Friend”
Bit of a segue song, another imagination that I ran with. Max Black essentially did this whole outro—he helped me with a ton on this record, all the keys. Atmospheric palate cleanser track.
9. “God’s Abandon”
This song broke new ground for me in that if I didn’t make it, I wouldn’t have made “Mother’s Eyes.” It’s got that Yung Lean sub bass and just this huge drop that was so exciting to make. The best part of making music, to me, is having zero expectations going in, and when it’s all over just being so high (not on drugs). Drugs are awesome, but getting to make music and having these rare moments is much much better.
10. “Little Black Glass”
Record closer and another experiment in that I got the idea to try and sing all the hooks from the record in dead space of this song. Essentially the song had good choruses and all this dead space that killed the momentum. So I ad-libbed the lyrics from the rest of the record and made a sort of callback—or, as I’ll trademark, “dream sequence.” The lyrics of this one loosely reference drugs and stuff in my past that I’m glad to be ahead of.
