The latest single from The Natural Lines was born with a brick in hand. “Instead of letting it fly,” frontman Matt Pond shares, “I dropped the brick in the grass and wrote ‘No More Tragedies.’”
Videos by American Songwriter
Premiering Thursday (March 2) with American Songwriter, “No More Tragedies” is a stunning portrait of inward reflection and the healing that comes with it. The single is the heart of The Natural Lines’ upcoming self-titled debut, a meditative record that explores an ugly past and a fresh start.
“I want to be honest. But I don’t want to sound like a psycho,” the artist details the song’s origins with American Songwriter. “I’ve been in therapy for years in order to deal with some of my wilder ways. I’ve cut down on my drinking, I’ve monkeyed with meditation. I run, I breathe, and I try to empathize with everyone that I interact with — without rolling my eyes. Yet when someone blocks my parking space, I have a hard time holding it all in. One night, I was standing in front of my house, staring down at a car with a brick in my hand.”
Pond, formerly of Matt Pond PA, describes the track as “the crux” of the band’s forthcoming album. “If records are solar systems, then that song is the sun,” he explains. “Everything else revolves outward from ‘No More Tragedies.’”
The song’s accompanying music video features actor Kate Walsh who is best known for the role of Dr. Addison Montgomery in the television drama Grey’s Anatomy and its spin-off Private Practice. Her piercing presence furthers the song’s power.
“I reached out to Kate to see if she’d like to carry a brick around for a day,” Pond shares. “And Kate surprisingly said yes.” As the deeply personal “No More Tragedies” plays, the star can be seen looking solemn in various locations holding said brick.
The frontman details Walsh’s ability to “convey the heart of what I’m saying so much better than I could with just a guitar. A beautiful, powerful woman holding a brick in a video is infinitely nuanced to me. I hope other people see it, too—the threat, the doubt, the fear, the anger, the reckoning. Whereas I would just come off as a cheap vigilante.”
Check out the striking music video below.
The Natural Lines’ self-titled debut—Pond’s first full-length project since retiring the Matt Pond PA name—features Pond’s longtime collaborator, multi-instrumentalist Chris Hansen, Pond’s partner Anya Marina, Hilary James (cello/vocals), Kyle Kelly-Yahner (drums), Louie Lino (keys), Sarah Hansen (horns), Sean Hansen (drums/bass), Kat Murphy (vocals), and 17-year-old vocalist MJ Murphy.
“It was something different from the start,” Pond says of the forthcoming album. “I wanted to write as purely as I could. Instead of getting stuck in the ‘tour, write an album, release an album, tour’ cycle, which is not a natural way of writing or living, I wanted to write an album and when it was done I wanted to make sure it was done. I didn’t want this feeling of, ‘Oh, we didn’t have time’, or, ‘I don’t know whether I believe in the songs but it’s coming out anyway.’ I used to be always racing to the finish line, but I’m not anymore.”
The Natural Lines is set for release on March 24.
Photo by Jesse Dufault / Clarion Call Media
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