Days away from the April 1 release of their fourth studio LP, THE UNRAVELING OF PUPTHEBAND, PUP have released its fourth single along with a flashy, high-concept music video. "Totally Fine" follows “Waiting,” “Robot Writes A Love Song, and “Matilda” as the record's final offering prior to the drop.
The new song finds the Toronto punk four-piece in a late stage of its unraveling, almost ready to rebuild from scratch. "Lately I’ve started to feel like I’m slowly dying / And if I’m being real I don’t even mind / Whether I’m at my worst or I’m totally fine," frontman Stephen Babcock sings on the chorus over a slurry of power chords and heavy drumming. He's joined on backing vocals by a motley choir featuring Melanie Gail St-Pierre of Casper Skulls, Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties, Kathryn McCaughey of NOBRO, and Erik Paulson of Remo Drive.
“We wrote ‘Totally Fine’ after a long creative drought," the band writes. "We all agreed to take a break from PUP during lockdown, to take some time to deal with our mental health and get some space from each other. After 3 months of not writing any songs, ‘Totally Fine’ was the first thing to pop out. It broke this creative dam wide open, just months worth of pent up frustration all smashed into this one song. After that, we ended up going on a bit of a tear and wrote the rest of the record really quickly. The drumming on this song still blows our minds. It’s so manic and wild and makes the song feel like it’s about to fall apart at any moment, which is kinda like how it feels to be in PUP.”
In the Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux-directed video, Babcock and Co. start a company, sell out, and go to space over the course of five short minutes. Watch it above.
