Uncle Pizza - ‘Frog Era’ Track By Track
Uncle Pizza has released their new album, ‘Frog Era’. Check out the band’s exclusive track by track detailing the album below.
leo corillo beach
This one started out as an exercise I used to practice tapping. For a while I wanted to write lyrics but after fleshing it out I really think it works best as an instrumental. It kinda feels like how it used to feel to camp out at this one particular beach in Malibu growing up. The album is about change and I love that the opening is basically like reflecting on a memory from childhood. It's almost like a prologue.
breath º0º
breath is where the album really starts and it's a little bit silly. The verses are supposed to juxtapose the lung infection I was born with against how it feels to wake up after smoking too much. It's two incredibly different events but kind of similar. I don't know if the song really comes to any particular point but it doesn't need to. There's something kinda cool about art that just says "here's some vaguely related stuff, how does that make you feel?" The bridge through to Cam's death wail is also one of my favorite moments on the album. It's the perfect combination of exactly how it sounded in my head and fun little arrangement things that only come out from being in the studio with everybody.
owigami fwogs
I learned how to make origami frogs because my Spanish teacher in maybe 3rd grade or so left one on my desk and folding and unfolding it was way more interesting than paying attention in class. Since then it's always been an unconscious thing I do when holding a piece of paper. There was one particular day when I was working a really stupid job at this sushi place. I was bored and I made maybe like 20 frogs out of receipt paper. One of the waiters came up and made a joke about it and I thought "I guess this is kind of a funny thing to do. I should write a song about it."
mush
This is definitely our most self indulgent moment and one of my two favorites. I think it's pretty clearly a love song and it comes from a moment when my girlfriend and I had just moved to New York. We were both struggling to get fully adjusted and this song is supposed to be me saying "even though life is a little uncertain I'm committed to us and I trust that you are too." My favorite little secret detail that people don't usually notice in this one is the pitched up choir vocals after the chorus. They're singing "M, U, S, H" just to hit you over the head with how mushy and sweet I'm trying to be.
-___-
This was the last song written for the album. I knew we needed one more to make it feel complete and I was walking to the studio one day listening to a new album from a certain mildly popular emo band and I thought "this is so sick, how can I rip this off." It's one of my favorites to play live. We like to open with it and there's this great moment right after the first note where I can suddenly feel everyone's attention suddenly shift to us and it feels so excellent.
iowa skyz
This was the first song written for the album. It's about how tricky it can be to take up space and feel like yourself. The idea that life can be this huge open midwestern sky ready for you to fill it up however you see fit. I think I was feeling insecure in my relationships with my friends, I was in the middle of moving, and I was having a mild gender crisis despite having been out as nonbinary for about a year. I really wanted something certain and safe and unaccounted for to just live in and sort everything out.
(gorf)
Pure jokes, japery even. Just playing around and hanging out. A jam session. You could call it a moment to reflect, or an intermission, or a cigarette break or pretty much whatever. A cool thing about (gorf) is that we recorded interviews with a bunch of the people who worked on the album and, for whatever reason, just this one file got corrupted. Through some studio magic we partially recovered it but it still sounded super distorted and weird. Honestly though, I think the final product is better for it. It's a really neat texture.
summermoth
This is my other favorite. I love slow burns like this that just explode at the end and it's some of my favorite lyrics I've ever written. Truly the coolest part however, is the choir. It's eight different vocalists and over fifty vocal tracks. It was an absolute bear to mix but there's something so crazy beautiful about all these voices, many of whom have never met and don't know each other, coming together to sing a song about self acceptance. It's like a vocal hug.
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