Matt Steele is no stranger to some dark subject matter. He has famously written an entire album about his mother’s passing, and he describes the song for his newest video as an “emotional Marianas Trench.” “Rescue Ship” finds Steele reaching out for help amidst some rough seas, but we’ve also learned from the rest of his work that latching on to the wrong person can be just a dangerous.
Initially written for his former punk band, Split Lips, Steele says the song was his attempt at trying to nail a Them Crooked Vultures vibe. The song really only found its footing with the addition of The Corvette Sunset.
“The riff was faster and the chorus was way more power chord-driven,” says Steele. “When Matt Steele & The Corvette Sunset was getting started, I played the guys a bit of the tune, but nobody was super keen on it until Devin came up with that sleek bass riff that drives the low end (good job Devin!). Then we slowed it down and dialed the distortion way back to make it more or less how it ended up on the album.”
While the song focuses on finding help, Steele explains that “Rescue Shop” inevitably leans into the trope of the depressed and self-destructive artist.
“I’ve found myself fascinated by (and embroiled in) some of the darker experiences in life. I know that when you’re down, it can feel like only one person can really save you, whether that’s your partner, your (shitty) ex, your friend, or a healthcare worker. I felt that feeling deeply, but I also don’t think that’s a healthy outlook/strategy to have. I certainly have tried over the past few years to cultivate a bigger support group than I think I had when my mother was dying and I was a bit emotionally isolated.
“My girlfriend said something really profound to me that felt like a huge wakeup call and makes me feel like I escaped being the narrator in Rescue Ship. It was something along the lines of ‘you’re actually pretty well-adjusted, you just had some bad experiences that made you second guess a lot about yourself.’
“Am I fully healed? No. I don’t think I’ll ever quit my flirtation with darker subjects and I certainly still get myself down a lot, but I feel like I am a bit more free to safely weave in and out of that line.”
Steele says that putting the video together provided a real challenge. The band was looking to move towards something with a little more narrative and a lot less “band in a room” vibe that can be seen on “Handshake Deal.”
Working with director Tim Mombourquette, the band wanted to visually capture a sense of the waterlogged isolation they felt the song deserved.
“I kind of can’t believe we pulled off the water effect, but basically, we rented a big fish tank off a random guy on Kijiji, filled it with water, light it with a red stage light, and went to town making waves and cyclones, sinking the boat that’s in the video, etc,” says Steele.
“It was a whole process, we had a chain of three of us carrying water from the bathroom/kitchen on the other side of my apartment to fill it up – and carting it all back when we were done!
Tour Dates:
03.15.19 – Halifax, NS @ The Seahorse Tavern
03.23.19 – Fredericton, NB @ The Capital Complex