Bachelor Enlist Big Thief’s James Krivchenia on “Sick of Spiraling”
Photo by Tonje ThilesenJay Som’s Melina Duterte and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner have delivered another stellar single as Bachelor. “Sick of Spiraling” is the duo’s third release together, following “Stay in The Car” and “Anything At All.” Bachelor’s debut album Doomin’ Sun arrives May 28 on Polyvinyl.
“Sick of Spiraling” is a grooving track inspired by being on the road. A country-rock guitar riff is at the sonic forefront of the single, building into a fuzzy solo that serves as the song’s slightly melancholic breakdown. Doomin’ Sun was forged by Duterte and Kempner in two weeks at the start of 2020, and the friendship between these two isn’t where the top-tier collaborations end—”Sick of Spiraling” receives a guest appearance from Big Thief’s James Krivchenia on drums.
The band spoke more on Krivchenia and the song’s creation in a statement:
“Sick of Spiraling” is one of the last songs we wrote and recorded together in Topanga. Both of us initially tried to play drums on the song but the groove wasn’t right so we enlisted help from James Krivchenia. He came over for a day and drummed on a few songs on the record, he really brought this song to life with his unique style. Ellen had the riff in her voice memos for a while, and had originally imagined it as a slow kinda melancholic song. Once we got together and listened back to the riff we heard it a whole new way as an upbeat driving song. After that Ellen wrote lyrics inspired by driving on tour and the rush and anxiety of being completely untethered and unprotected on the open road.
Listen to the latest track from Bachelor below and revisit Palehound’s 2015 Paste session further down. You can preorder Doomin’ Sun here.