In the great tradition of bands naming songs after themselves, off of albums named after themselves, comes “Clamfight,” a new song from New Jersey sludge crew Clamfight, off their upcoming album Clamfight. The sludgy tune is a hefty beast in length and sonic heaviness, but also in its emotional weight and celebration of friendship.
“The lyrics and theme for ‘Clamfight’ spun out of a night that Sean and I spent fishing in Jersey,” drummer/vocalist Andy Martin tells Decibel. “Fishing was dead and since we’re both in our 40s, we ended up talking all night about our dads and how hard it is to watch your parents age. That conversation and the solace I found on the water became the starting point for the lyrics to ‘Clamfight’ but the overarching theme of the song became how lucky we are to still be playing together. We’ve gone from teens doing donuts and occasionally fighting outside of the 7-11 to guys with careers and families of our own. I wrote this song as a tribute to Joel [Harris], Louis [Koble, bass], and Sean [McKee, guitar], because I love them, and am incredibly grateful for our thirty years of friendship. But because I can’t just be like ‘gosh I love my best friends,’ I managed to squeeze in some digs at our regrettable 1990s nu-metal fashion choices, like my cornrows and Louis’ tongue rings.
“Despite ‘Clamfight’ being such a personal song, we want a broader sound, so we enlisted some good friends to expand the vocal palette. JJ Koczan of Maegashira and The Obelisk fame has supported us from our earliest days grinding it out in pre-gentrification Asbury Park and Steve Murphy from Kings Destroy and Uppercut is like our big brother. We played a million shows with Kings Destroy, and JJ facilitated that relationship and is also really close with them, so having the two of them on this song was really special for us.”
Clamfight is out on May 16 via the band, with pre-orders live now on Bandcamp. Check out “Clamfight” below.
The post Track Premiere: Clamfight – ‘Clamfight’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.