“Ketchup is not what’s in my veins/and it’s under a mountain of chocolate.” That’s how Brent McCormick, lead vocalist and songwriter for The Wimps describes his current romantic situation in the RVA surf rock/pop band’s latest single, “My Love is Real.”
We’ll get back to the ketchup explanation later. But the catchy, upbeat single is a new track off the band’s upcoming album, Reel Whirl, slated to drop July 8 via Trrrash Records.
The 12-track album focuses mostly on young love and the anxiety, excitement, doubt and other horrible/wonderful goodness that comes with it.
“All of the songs in some way deal with young love, and how beautiful and terrifying and stressful that is,” McCormick said.
The album stems from McCormick’s experiences in his latest relationship, which he’s been in the last year and a half.
And The Wimps have given us this delightful lyric video (top image) they made themselves of the single ahead of the album release and its chocked full of 50s and 60s clips of young lovers and it is glorious. Ah, simpler times.
“The clips are from the Prelinger Archives, which are a bunch of old advertisements, educational videos, and home movies from the 50s and 60s,” he said.
As for the name of the album, well that ties into the theme as well.
“We were trying to think of drive-in movies or makeout points, were there any names from drive-in movies and makeout points, but they were just either ‘The Point’, or ‘makeout point’,” said drummer Eric Godsey.
The band landed on Reel Whirl, because the words, in a way, describe how you feel when opening yourself up to something and someone new.
“[It’s] is just kind of nice, both of those words have to do with spinning and spiraling and a lot of the lyrics come from that place of feeling very out of control in a new relationship,” McCormick said.
The album will be the The Wimps’ sophomore release, a follow-up to the four-piece’s self-titled debut in April 2016, which is when RVA Mag first fell in love with their old school 60s pop sound with a modern twist.
Godsey said the band started toying with some of the riffs for Reel Whirl when their debut album came out. They sought out the expertise of Adrian Olsen over at Montrose Recording back in the winter to start recording the album.
“I’ve worked with him on a lot of other projects and every time he’s easy to work with and knows what he’s doing,” Godsey said.
The Wimps only spent three days in the studio, spread out over the course of a few months, piecing Reel Whirl together, before wrapping it up a little over a month ago.
Like the last album, both are very personal, but their debut record dealt a lot with McCormick’s high school break up. Despite the roller coaster ride that is two young people falling in love, McCormick assured RVA Mag listeners the songs will mostly be positive and happy.
“Surprisingly, there’s not as much heartbreak on this record,” he said. “There are upbeat songs, romantic songs, I think, what’s interesting to me, a lot of the songs deal more with the anxiety that comes with entering into anything new.”
Now back to the ‘ketchup is not what’s in my veins/ and it’s under a mountain of chocolate’ lyrics. The single delves into the struggle McCormick, like most people on this planet, have faced at some point in their lives: how to express love for someone in a non-cheesy way.
“It’s sort of me trying to say, ‘the blood inside of my veins is not fake blood, it is blood that is real, so it’s sort of an attempt to say, ‘my love is genuine’,” he said of the lyrics.
“When I was in this new relationship, I was very frustrated because I wanted to find ways to express my love for another person that didn’t feel cliché, but all I know, because I’m a human being that watches TV and reads magazines, are clichés.”
Here’s hoping McCormick’s expressions in Reel Whirl can help those of you out there looking to make your lover/flame/significant other swoon so you don’t have to resort to flowers, heart-shaped chocolate boxes and holding a boom box over your head outside their window. (Although, judge me if you want, I will go on record now and say I still think those are just as romantic.)
As far as a tour, the humble band has kept it local since they started performing, but it’s definitely on the books.
“We were an opener for so long, we’re not used to booking because people were always asking us to play,” Godsey said. “I think I wouldn’t call it a tour, but we’re going to start stepping out of town. We’ve got a few things lined up.”
The Wimps plan to release Reel Whirl at Hardywood on Sat. July 8 along with Camp Howard and Hannah Goad, but you can catch them at this Fri., June 16 at Strange Matter and June 17 at Cary St. Café opening for Angelica Garcia.
