STREAMING: Scranton indie rock band Tigers Jaw shows love for best friend ‘June’ in new song
Last month, Scranton indie rock band Tigers Jaw gave fans their first glimpse of “Spin,” their upcoming album and first for new label Black Cement Records. Revealing the cover art, tracklist, and a behind-the-scenes music video for the first single, “Guardian,” the record is set to come out on Friday, May 19, so with about a month to go, there’s inevitably going to be a few more tracks released online before then.
Today, the duo of Ben Walsh and Brianna Collins premiered “June” on Nylon, which is about Collins’ best friend who feels more like a sister to her. This is the first song she has written herself in the history of the band, inspired by helping her friend through a bad relationship.
“There was a time in our friendship where she was in a relationship that was emotionally abusive, which was really hard to see her go through. While she was always a strong and independent person, she leaned on myself and our group of friends to help her get through it all. In the moments where she couldn’t see past everything that was happening, I would try to remind her that it wasn’t always going to feel so bad. I wanted to write a song that showed how friendship can make a difference in feeling strong enough to leave relationships that are damaging,” Collins explained.
“’June’ was actually the first song that I’ve ever written, and I’ve found that I really enjoy collaborating – taking the bones of what I’m working on and seeing what someone could add to it. For ‘June,’ I knew that I wanted [my friend] Nikki to collaborate with me on lyrics. I wanted her voice and experience of the situation to be present and accurately represented, and she’s also an amazing writer and the person I always go to bounce ideas off. She’s my best friend, the one that knows exactly what I want to say without me even having to say it, so it was a meaningful experience to work on this song together.”
This beautiful tribute will be one of 12 tracks on the album recorded by Philadelphia producer Will Yip in Studio 4 in Conshohocken, where they also created their previous critically acclaimed record, “Charmer.” Black Cement is a new Atlantic Records imprint curated by Yip, who chose Tigers Jaw as the first band to be featured on the label.
“At the end of the day, I’m on the band’s side, and if they couldn’t benefit from the label, I wouldn’t bring them on,” Yip said last month, “but I thought Tigers Jaw were the perfect band to be on Black Cement because every note is so genuine and the music is so incredibly catchy.”
“As soon as we started discussing working together with Black Cement, we felt comfortable and confident that we share a similar vision,” Walsh added. “They believe in sincere, dynamic music and can see the potential and importance in bringing music of this caliber to a wider audience.”
“Spin” will be released on May 19, the same day Tigers Jaw will kick off a full U.S. tour with Saintseneca and Smidley that runs through June, with the closest shows to their hometown area at Webster Hall in New York City on Thursday, June 22 and Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Friday, June 23. Their last major cross-country tour was with New Found Glory and Yellowcard back in 2015.
See the album cover and tracklist below:
Tigers Jaw – “Spin” tracklist:
1. “Follows”
2. “Favorite”
3. “June”
4. “Escape Plan”
5. “Blurry Vision”
6. “Guardian”
7. “Bullet”
8. “Brass Ring”
9. “Oh Time”
10. “Same Stone”
11. “Make It Up”
12. “Window
