Feel The Push And Pull – Graduation Speech

When people think back of their pandemic year, they will likely remember how often they ordered from their favorite restaurant, the stretch of their mask over their nose, the haunting smell of hand sanitizer—and, of course, the anxieties and uncertainties of an unseen and highly contagious virus. They may not remember how hard the pandemic hit musicians and performers, how so many lost their day jobs and their passion projects seemingly overnight. Though some musicians struggled to create during their quarantine, others used their music to make sense of the circumstances unfolding around them.

Private Anxieties, the third EP by Graduation Speech, is not a pandemic record, though it includes songs written during and inspired by the world’s shutdown. “The pandemic had just started and I was furloughed from work almost immediately,” says Kevin Day. “During my month-long furlough, I tried my best to write and record a song a day. I think those songs in particular lean into the uncertainty of what to expect from a lockdown and how long things will last.”

Day, who also fronts the pop-punk band Aspiga, has always considered Graduation Speech a solo project, and his previous releases demonstrate this. 2017’s Quiet and Calm features just Day with his acoustic playing spacious, somber songs; on 2019’s Maintenance Required, he adds additional layers—streaks of guitars, daubs of piano, percussive textures—but the final result still feels like a solo album. Private Anxieties, however, shows the project shedding that designation; though the songs still center around Day’s acoustic guitar, a full band is brought into the fold, transforming these emotional, intimate songs into something more alive.

“This recording is very much a snapshot of a group of people playing in a room together and all of the nuances that come with that,” Day says. “You can feel the push and pull, hear a note end abruptly, and I think you can just feel everyone playing off of each other.”

Listeners might feel this push and pull best on the opener “Dare To Try,” on which Day’s crisp chords seem to tug playfully against a grimy lead guitar as drums trot in the background, nudging the song along. The beat is much simpler on “Keep Still,” alternating between clicking hi-hat and thumping drums. Here, Day’s voice almost whispers above the warbling guitars, the clacking bass, the smeared lead. On “Everything I Need,” his lyrics are simple and poetic and capture a different kind of push and pull—between being an adult and someone’s son. “My mother, she asks me / if I have everything I need / and I tell her I do,” Day sings above the calm clatter of the band behind him.