Come Pick Me Up

Slow & Steady

My band, By Surprise, has been fortunate enough to be working with Topshelf Records for our first full-length record. They’re a small indie out of Boston run by two really nice guys who care about releasing quality over quantity.

Where as most bands are eager to write a record with their first few breaths, it took us five years, three EPs, one split 7”, and a compendium cassette to get to this point. We are slow as dirt. Our record Mountain Smashers comes out tomorrow, and I’m freaking out just a little bit. (Just enough that I’m not building this up to be bigger than it is in the grand scheme of things.) The last time I got to put a full length album out was 11 years ago… so it puts things a little more into perspective. It’s exciting to see that people I’ve never met, and will probably never meet, are ordering the record. It’s weird. Yet, I’m grateful.

When your only desire is to make something as simple as “an album” with your buddies, and hope someone gives a damn, the end result is far more rewarding. We’ve always gone about things at our own pace, and hoped that someone along the way would take a moment to enjoy it for its simplicity. Sure, it makes things a lot more difficult when trying to get onto the big basement shows.. but all of that stuff is fleeting anyway.

Bottom line is, I hope people like it.. and for the people that don’t like it, I hope their negative criticism will be funny and biting enough to remember.

With any luck, we’ll make it to the used bin, and someone years down the line will buy it because he or she heard from an older friend that “they were kinda cool”.

Stream the album at Punknews

Buy the album from Topshelf Records