LISTEN HERE: The Confusionaires Put Bourbon Into Friend Zone
On first rush, The Confusionaires’ new song Sour Mash comes off like a celebration of whiskey. Man, these rockabilly guys sure like to drink.
But no, there’s a twist (of lime): The whole song turns out to be an anthem for moderation, using “Sour Mash” – a type of bourbon perhaps best known in the form of Jack Daniels No. 7 – as an anthropomorphic symbol of a love affair that’s been put on hold. Key lyric: “Sometimes I miss you when I think about those days. Maybe we can get together on Saturday night just for old time’s sake.”
Frontman FatDave Johnston explains, “It’s a parting of ways, but also a bit of ‘I’ll see you when I see you.’ It was the intention to write kind of a love song, then breaking up and meeting every once in a while.” Note that this often does not work with human relationships – and not usually with alcohol, either. Which begs the question: Does FatDave have a drinking problem? He’s a rock musician. What are the odds?
“I would never call myself an alcoholic, but I definitely depended on it more than I should’ve for a good long time,” he says. “I never lost a job or a gig or burnt down a relationship over it. But you play music all the time, and you’re in bars all the time. And this becomes your normal, maybe to a fault. There’s a lot of people in my periphery who are off the sauce completely. Maybe with the legalization of marijuana they switched vices.”
Moderation has apparently worked wonders.
“It changed my focus and my personal life, and my music. It’s hard to be in a creative space when you’re drunk all the time.”
He adds, “It was nice while it lasted. Not every bygone relationship is 100 per cent bad.”
Sour Mash is the latest single from the Confusionaires’ new album, From the Headache to the Heartache, whose release show takes place Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Aviary. Ramblin’ Ambassadors are also on the bill.
Until then, LISTEN HERE:
