The Muster Point Project proudly go it alone on their new single and video Don’t Give Me Anything — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The indie-pop outfit’s latest single is a song about owning up to the pitfalls of ambition. A doggedly persistent drumbeat backs up energetic guitar riffs and keyboards whose melodies drive us through the sounds of different eras, from 1960s rock to the best of ’80s and on to mid-’00s indie-pop.
MPP are the creation of singer-songwriter Kevin Franco, who has spent 40 years mastering everything from mandolin, horns, sikus and quena to more pedestrian fare like guitar and percussion. When a certain specialized sound is required, Franco enlists other professional musicians, and to that end, Don’t Give Me Anything features Sterling Laws (Liz Phair, War on Drugs) on percussion, Robin Hatch (ex-Rural Alberta Advantage) on keyboards, and Odighizuwa Patience supplying backing vocals, while Franco covers the guitar, bass, mandolin, vibraslap, vocals and lyrics. The song was produced by Darryll McFadyen (Belle and Sebastian, Simple Minds, Trevor Horn).
The single, from an upcoming album titled It Was Here He Received His Only Formal Education, mines Franco’s experiences working in the formidable tech industry and the conflicting set of egos he encountered in building a business that ultimately did not succeed. In the song, four perspectives — the lawyer, the accountant, the investor, and the entrepreneur — add up to the “general sentiment put forth in the song name and final lyric, ‘I just wanna be alone,’ ” Franco says. “It also sums up my feelings as the one who failed so painfully hard while fully understanding the risks before proceeding. It’s mine to own.”
While accepting responsibility is important for Franco, the story also critiques glossy showmanship and the randomness of success in the corporate world:
“Big words, you think you’re the tops
You even fool some with your malaprops
Well you think you’re clever ‘cause you pull in some dough
Same old clown that we’ve all known.”
The video uses clips from a 1963 public domain film in which a crew of teens wearing monkey masks ride bikes through a town, while a lone monkey-teen trails behind them on foot. Lyrically, Don’t Give Me Anything ends in a raw state of disillusionment, and musically it wraps up with a high-key tornado of sound, going along with the video’s concluding psychedelic flashes of light.
Watch the video for Don’t Give Me Everything above, hear more from The Muster Point Project below, and gather at their website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
