Created this during Christmas break on my junior year of high school all on my own. At the time, I was feeling really eager to put out a body of my own work into the world for the first time but was set back by my lack of recording experience and trouble getting my bands to record music. My perfectionist ways resorted me to just doing it myself.

I pumped out You Were Never Really Here on the evening of Christmas Day with suprisingly no trial and error. Everything was written on the spot (besides the riff -- which I had been holding onto for only a few days at that point) and done with pure motivation and dedication. There was a vibe that what I was doing was special. The rest of the week, I couldn't help but blast the track and jump around, a feeling I couldn't help. It gave me more confidence, alongside with the fact that it garnered a bit of attention (that week I found out I was good at marketing) that I can independently create my own music and it pushed me more into taking complete charge of my own project.

I knew to complete the single, it needed a b-side. Most people don't bother much with it nowadays, but this is an COOL indie record, goddamnit, there's gotta be a b-side. Surf Punk, once again, came about very abruptly. Ironically, I was taking a break from struggling on a previous song that wasn't working in my approach of prioritizing spontaneity. Surf Punk was fully done in an hour. I like 60s lo-fi jangly garage rock and wanted to replicate that sound. The lyrics don't hold any meaning.

Overall, this single is much different than what I'm interested in creating a year and a half later but it encapsulates a time of birth and realization in me in taking my own control.

- Jason Frankel