WNXP’s Nashville Artist of the Month for November *repeat repeat have a new EP out this week called Songs for a Nice Drive. The husband-and-wife duo of Jared and Kristyn Corder had a breakthrough on Tik Tok during lockdown, thanks to some of their happier power pop songs, but they say the new collection is inspired by “sad, wintry stuff” from artists they love, like Andy Shauf and Big Thief. The pair wrote the songs during previous winters and say the tone of the EP fits this time of year, and was a creative way of dealing with the seasonal depression Jared began experiencing more deeply after they moved from East Nashville to a farm in the country. The Corders shared some insight into each of the four tracks with WNXP.
“Your After”
Kristyn: This song is about how you’d feel when the love of your life has passed. We wrote it together, but the sentiment had been in the wings for Jared as a song theme. We’ve never spent a night apart in our 10-plus years together and because of that, who goes first is a topic that we discuss sometimes. Hopefully there’s a melody or a message in there worth someone wanting to explore within themselves, because the theme is universal to anyone with a partner they truly love and can’t imagine going on without.
“Song For a Nice Drive”
Jared: The literal meaning is driving through the California canyons and getting abducted by aliens, or something. This trippy, kind of hippie vibe. But the chorus was what I wrote first, and it was really a song about feeling depression. All through my twenties, I never felt that. I grew up in a pretty happy home, but I think just with the world changing and getting older and then reflecting on some of the things in my upbringing, I feel elements of trauma. Just as I’m getting older and trying to learn more about who I am, it’s been a new thing to experience.
“Lay it Out”
Kristyn: We live in a literal holler which, by definition (well, slang I suppose), is a small valley between mountains. We’re surrounded by tall hills in every window’s view. In the warm months, it’s the most heavenly place – with floor-to-ceiling trees when you look out your windows, and you have to drag yourself inside. In the winter, it can feel like you are surrounded by brown dead things and everything is gray. In the past three years, we’ve come to realize that Jared is more affected by seasonal affective mood disorder, and we’ve learned a lot more about ourselves as adults in the discovery of that. I am an introvert and I love to cozy up indoors for what feels like infinite periods of time, so the season of doing just that it tends to not affect me negatively as much, because I look forward to the slower pace. But I think the message of the song is someone many folks could relate to, and that’s always something we consider when we write. Jared wrote this one when we were snowed in last winter for what turned out to be six days for us out here, because we live on a tiny and often forgotten country road that the county forgets to salt! 🙂 This year we have a 4-wheeler, so we might be able to leave the driveway if it happens again.
“Like You Do”
Kristyn: This song represents one in a series of songs we have written and are still writing that are about certain types of men that are…maybe not great. Jared will tell you they are inspired by shitty men. “Like You Do” is the story of someone who is broken up with and is bitter about it, deflective, and wants to get even, and the little things we humans do when we feel scorned by love. This certainly isn’t the first non-autobiographical song (“Mostly” from our 2017 album Floral Canyon comes to mind), but we want to make sure we wrote about all kinds of people’s stories, because it’s easiest for us to write love songs.