Singled Out: Warren Teagarden and The Good Grief's LA On My Own

09-20-2023

San Francisco indie rockers Warren Teagarden and The Good Grief just released their new single, "LA on My Own," and to celebrate we asked Warren to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

The focus is the relationship between the two "characters." Jessica's character is telling my character that she's leaving him, and she's presenting it as a great act of independence and self-liberation. My character isn't even reacting to what she's saying, he can't get past his impression that she's going to LA for all the wrong reasons. I think a lot of arguments are this way, the two sides aren't even really arguing about the same thing.

This is one of the first songs I wrote after taking several months off to write a bunch of songs for a musical I'm working on. That could partially explain the "dialogue" type nature of the song, with Jessica singing the verses and me on the choruses. Another partial inspiration was the Sugarcubes song "Water." In that song, a couple goes for a walk on a frozen lake. (How Icelandic a setting is that for a song?!) The ice breaks and the guy falls in. His side of the story is kinda lovey-dovey, "I tried to kiss you through the ice..." but the woman is just like Buh-bye! So two very different perspectives on the same event. Which is very similar to what I was trying to capture. But deaths by drowning are down 100% in our tune.

My favorite moment is in the outro when Jessica adds her own flourishes to the melody. I always love it when my bandmates add their own voice to a song, especially in this case when it's literally her voice singing "LA on my own" in her own way.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the band here