June 6th, 2013 
James Shotwell 
There are few exclusives we love having in this world more than track-by-tracks. While song premieres can be nice (and certainly bring lots of traffic), track-by-track features are where fans get to look behind the curtain and learn about how musicians think, work, and feel. They offer a kind of guided tour through the album that wouldn’t work nearly as well in any other setting, and it is with that in mind we’re excited to present a new track-by-track feature with Abandon Kansas.
On June 1, Abandon Kansas released a short EP entitled A Midwest Summer. The release, which is available until June 10 as a pay-what-you-want download on bandcamp, offers fans three new tracks. We had been waiting for the EP since the May premiere of the video for “You + Me + The Radio,” and I am happy to report the final product does not disappoint in the slightest. We love it so much, in fact, that we reached out to the guys for more insight on their inspiration. They were happy to share the stories behind the song with us, and now we’re sharing that information with you.
1. You + Me + The Radio
This song inspired the title for the short EP. We just felt like the track captured the heat of a Midwest summer road trip with the windows down. These tracks fit into a different sequence on the full-length concept album we have written. This song is early in our character’s story when life is going great, crushing on some girl back home. The coast-to-coast road trip in this song is a fantasy in our young character’s mind, an enthrallment with 80’s bands, lured to the thought of life on the road.
Sonically we experimented with a couple things. Lots of synth parts on this song, and we wanted to keep it one guitar. We could have tracked some real strings in the bridge I suppose, but the melotron synth strings were more fantasy like, same with the synths in the bridge and the cut up Ooo’s, just really trying to hone in on that teenage crush phase. The fade out is just us recording radio static off the record player in my room, then that’s Nick’s grandpa at the end of the song
2. The Chase
It’s track two on the EP, but it’s much further along on the full length, after our character has gone through some life. He’s older and bent at this point in the story, using people to get what he wants, but he doesn’t even know what he wants. We used a trancey piano part and wrecked vocal sound to get the tension started, and then it’s just so bass driven and borderline sensual in the mix. We really like playing this song live. It’s last in our set on this summer tour and by then my voice is wrecked anyway, it matches up with the distortion on the vocals in the track pretty well by then. We’ve been playing this one live for about a year now, plenty of sing along parts on this EP so can’t wait til everyone knows em.
3. Marching Around Me
This song is a little bit more straightforward than the other two, but we were going for a specific wide open, slow motion anthem with more vocals and percussion than instrumentation. This is a celebration of surrender, a backwards idea for most folks, especially in this country. When love holds you prisoner but you feel free for the first time. Love is vast, the mountains and armies metaphors connect. We all have had encounters where genuine love has brought walls down, and that’s a beautiful time of surrender. There’s a much bigger message under this song; that love doesn’t give up when things get tough, that true commitment is actually true freedom.
I have fun coming up with lines like “Oh say can you see, what you’re doin to me, thought I was brave, now I’m down on my knees” because we’re trying to write a story, it’s real life stuff but it’s imaginary and exaggerated. We’re having a blast coming up with this stuff.
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