This 4 song EP from Long Island’s King Neptune is a homage to alt-rock from the 90’s and 00’s, but with a new twist that we find refreshing amongst the present rock-scene.
A Place To Rest My Head sucks you in immediately with “Black Hole” and its chunky beats and catchy chorus’. Following is the high-tempo track “All Night” that has a driving bassline and yet another memorable chorus punctuated by a short but furious guitar solo. “Thrown In Reverse” is where you start to notice the impressive way King Neptune delivers his lyrics, which is in your face, but in a good and fun way. The EP ends with “Alabastard,” another impressive track that will get stuck in your brain for the rest of the day.
A Place To Rest My Head ep. is a collection of songs written by Ian Kenny with the help of the incredibly talented Steve Kupillas, Tommy Fleischmann, Jordan Schneider, Tom Costa, and Chris Chu.
Black Hole is the first song I wrote for this project. I worked with long island producer Mike Sapone and I honestly don’t think I could have worked with anyone who better understood what I was going for sonically. I think this song kind of sums up the emotive state of the early stages of writing sessions for King Neptune. I was just coming out of a long term relationship and changes were happening in pretty much all aspects of my life. It was time for me to focus on myself and this song was the first one that I took some liberties on – decided to be a little selfish for once.
All Night was written on Christmas Eve 2014 after having a few scotches with my father and brother-in-law. I wound up recording a slurry voice-memo to my phone at 2am, and also remember having that chorus melody stuck in my head for months after that. The tune calls back to over-served summer nights and losing your inhibitions for a bit in a brutal drunken matter of fact kind of way. Sonically, I really wanted to combine my love for 50’s pop music with my love for fuzzy surf-rock. I’m really proud of how this song transformed from voice-memo to record. I tracked this song at the mix palace with my good friend and very talented producer/engineer Steve Kupillas and we had Dennis Herring from dtla mix it. Dennis was a solid addition to this song (I’m a huge fan of his catalog), and think he really nailed the care-free spirit of the song sonically, we went for loud, fast, and fuzzy.
Thrown In Reverse is a funny one to reminisce on. I remember having this song stuck in my head for weeks before I sat down to write it. it all happened on a rainy day in Brooklyn at my friend Chris’ apartment. Chris and I sat down and demoed out this song in 2 hours and that’s where it really took shape. I then brought it to Steve Kupillas and we wound up finishing it together. This song is about giving into temptation and being so self-aware that you feel like you owe it to yourself to make some bad decisions. I think you can learn a lot about yourself by making some bad decisions.
Alabastard is about a posthumous conversation with my grave – it’s somewhat of a title track for the ep. overall, Alabastard is about looking back at your life and coming to terms with how things have panned out based on a combination of the decisions you had made and the people you had surrounded yourself with. I love how up-beat and bright the tune is yet the lyrics are self-reflective and brutal. the mighty talented Dan Gluszak mixed this track and it’s another one that I don’t think could have turned out better. Dan completely nailed this mix, and am so happy to have his mark on this project.
Cover Image: Kevin Labeck
