Golden Apples’ new album Shooting Star is the Philly psych-pop band’s ode to collaboration and creative influence, marking a full 180 from Russell Edling’s original concept of the project in the early stages of COVID as a solo endeavor. It’s also an album about finding freedom in songwriting, which is most explicitly addressed in the record’s new single “Freeeee”—a subtly cathartic track that sounds like Stereolab for the Spirit of the Beehive generation.
“‘Freeeee,’ to me, is a loose exploration of what it feels like to get lost and found within songwriting,” the songwriter at the heart of Golden Apples shares. “Sometimes it feels like swimming through space, just trying to maneuver through confusion and obstacles in order to break free and take off. Sometimes the process can feel oppressive and suffocating, only to turn on a dime and seem weightless and easy.”
While the song itself doesn’t have much in common with the mathy noise-pop of Deerhoof, Edling also notes that it was that band’s freewheeling songwriting that served as the spark for “Freeeee.” ”The lyrics reference a moment when I was taking a walk and listening to Deerhoof’s album Milk Man again after many years. At the time, I was sort of frustrated and lost in my own creative tangles and that album got me back on the path again.”
You can pre-order Shooting Star here, and find their upcoming fall dates—both solo and opening for Wicca Phase Springs Eternal—here.
