Exclusive: Pokey LaFarge Shares His New Single, “End of My Rope”
Images via Larry Niehues, New West Records
Singer-songwriter Pokey LaFarge shares his new single “End of My Rope” via Paste today (Feb. 6). “End of My Rope”—the second single to be released for LaFarge’s first new album in over three years, Rock Bottom Rhapsody—brings folk music and rock ‘n’ roll together in a way that feels fresh.
“I like to think of ‘End of My Rope’ as kind of a Charlie Feathers meets The Everly Brothers meets T-Rex kind of sound,” LaFarge tells Paste, continuing:
For me, the foundation of the song’s meaning is in the opening line: “Growing up was easy for some, but not me, and getting older is the same old story.”
So we have a subject who is looking back over all the years that have passed, and feeling all of his mistakes turned into haunting memories—memories of missed opportunities, and all the friends and acquaintances that have become so distant over the years. He has a flood or a confluence of emotions, feeling like everyone and everything has seemingly slipped through his fingers. He’s overwhelmed, but he knows there’s only one thing for a singer to do: get back up on stage and “let the spotlight shine the skin off my bones.”
A collection of 13 tracks produced by Chris Seefried (Fitz and The Tantrums), Rock Bottom Rhapsody is set for release on April 10, LaFarge’s New West Records debut.
“The man singing these songs isn’t exactly the same man that wrote them,” says LaFarge in a statement. “This album is about the story of who I used to be.”
In 2018, LaFarge experienced a complete downward spiral into a dark place of self destruction and anxiety. “It’s a case of me writing the story and writing the song, and then unfortunately living it,” he reflects. “I was going towards the darkness. Destruction definitely ensued; self-sabotage and self-destruction definitely happened.”
In fact, his darkness, temptation, and what he calls “evil spirits and demons” took over his life.