“‘What’s On Your Mind’ is about that thing between a man and a woman that we’re all guilty of: Saying things that we don’t really mean, either in anger or in fear, to avoid exposing our true feelings,” Anthony Farrell, keyboardist for the Austin two-piece band Greyhounds, explains of his band’s new song. The song captures that vulnerability with a ringing guitar and a bluesy swagger, and all the pain a strained falsetto can convey—something that helped the band land itself a record deal with Memphis’s stalwart Ardent Music for its forthcoming debut album.
Ardent—which came to prominence in the seventies, as the home of the legendary Memphis power-pop outfit Big Star—is a strong home for the band’s soulful Accumulator, from which “What’s On Your Mind” comes. Farrell and bandmate Andrew Trube have been running Greyhounds as an independent operation—as well as spending time playing as members of J.J. Grey and Mofro—but when the Memphis label came calling, they were confident they found a home.
“Ardent really wanted us there, and we felt like it was a privilege to be on the label, and that was a great position for us to be in,” Farrell says. “Even though there’s so much history associated with that name, it’s a brand new start for the label, as well as the band. We know that we’re going to keep making music, and now is the time to build a good team. You can’t just do it by yourself—it’s so much more fun when you get other people involved. That’s what it’s all about in the end, really: Getting people together.”
People may well come together at shows when the band breaks out “What’s On Your Mind,” which is the sort of bummer song you can dance to—always the hallmark of a quality blues jam. Listen below:
Accumulator is out April 8th on Ardent Music.
Photo credit: Zack Littlefield – Shimmer Ready
