“Aunt Acid,” the second single from Shaolin, is a kaleidoscope of experiences; the Halifax-based four-piece dance around the edges of math rock with a side of funk to create a combination that sounds like Muse, Pink Floyd, Rush and local festival legends Grand Theft Bus all got together to create a post-grunge baby. It’s a wild ride as they slide from genre to genre, picking up the pieces of guitarist Brennon MacKinnon’s riffwork.
Despite the psychedelic suggestion of the title and the accompanying artwork by Hannah Mullan that looks like you’re about to be lectured by your disappointed aunt about what a burden you’ve become to your family before she unhinges her jaw to swallow you whole, “Aunt Acid” — if it’s to be believed — is named for a wholesome inside joke. Penned by MacKinnon, the song is actually far more inspirational than its tone gives it credit for.
“Well, anyone who’s spent much time around me knows I take an absurd amount of antacids,” laughs MacKinnon. “I originally called the song ‘Antacid’ and, somewhere along the line, we started calling it ‘Aunt Acid’.”
With lyrics that were written a year ago during the first writing session between MacKinnon and bandmate Jack Phillips, and licks pulled from the bag of tricks MacKinnon put together when he was all of 17-years-old, the band say that “Aunt Acid” has become of their favourites to perform live. The song, both in the context of a pandemic and the sense of an age when the apron strings are still holding on by a thread, deals with themes of “feeling stuck in time, monotony, and confusion.”
Finding all that in the lyrics takes some careful scrutiny. MacKinnon says that the lyrics were intentionally left a bit vague and it’s only lines like “But wait, there’s more/Arm wrestles and thumb wars/Then boredom you won’t alleviate” that hint at the larger picture of a youthful ennui.
“I wanted to kind of write about the headspace I was in before I left my hometown to try music,” explains MacKinnon. “I was trying to get across a feeling of longing for change, specifically when you’re younger and it feels like you’re sort of stuck in time, waiting for something new — before you’re actually an adult and have much control over what happens to you.”
And while that seems like a dire situation to reflect on, for Shaolin that seems to be more a matter of perspective. It’s a past benchmark to measure their progress against.
“Rediscovering some of those old parts I wrote was the inspiration for what I ended up writing it about,” says MacKinnon. “If anything, it was a positive reflection. Kind of like I’m doing what I wanted to be doing when I wrote this: I’m playing in a band with some awesome musicians/friends. It was very fulfilling to take some music I wrote when that seemed like a pipe dream and work it into something new.”
“Aunt Acid” is the follow-up to Shaolin’s previous single, “An Avuncular Man,” but the band says they’re very excited to have an EP released, hopefully, sometime in the next couple of months.