THEA: I’ve mentioned before that we write humor; we have a pretty large catalog of it,  but this is the first one we’re presenting here.

Chad is kind of an idea machine. And he’s a much funnier person than I am.

He was cooking up a Suno recipe for a Pacific Northwest grunge sound for something else, but then decided to pivot to writing a funny song about a guy living in Seattle (where we both used to live) who missed the grunge scene bythismuch.

Ordinarily—and there are exceptions, but it’s often this way—things are about 75% finished before I ever even see the lyrics. This one is closer to an even contribution, I suppose because of the familiarity we both have of the city and its music scene.

There was a great foundation for a song here, but I knew we needed to re-tool the chorus and settle on a funny hook. It was originally something about coffee that I can’t actually remember now. (When I can’t quite grab onto anything, that’s a sign.) So we worked together to find the people in his life who are critical of him (it wasn’t hard): his therapist, his mother, his father, his girlfriend…and it was so ridiculously easy to imagine what they would say.

At first, the line in the chorus about the mother was “my mother says I’m weak”, but then I asked Chad if he thought “mom says I’m weak” would be funnier, and now we both just about spit our drinks whenever we listen to that line.

I’ll leave it to Chad explain all the Seattle references in the song (SubPop, The Stranger, The Rocket, etc.)…but yeah, at least for us, this one was almost too much fun to write.

CHAD: Yeah, this one was a lot of fun. She doesn’t say it, but Thea is also hilarious and we both came up with some really funny lines in this.

As for the various Seattle references:

The Central Tavern (“Seattle’s Only 2nd Class Tavern”) was a big spot for live music, and if I recall correctly Nirvana had their first Seattle show there, and many other Grunge pioneers played there as well. I’m sure I still have one The Central’s t-shirts somewhere. Capitol Hill, coffee shops everywhere, and Belltown (where many grunge bands had practice spaces) are all well-known Seattle locations.

The Stranger was one of those weekly alternative newspapers you could find everywhere, and The Rocket was a music-focused paper that came out every few weeks. I always looked forward to getting a copy because the local music scene was covered so well.

And, I’m sure we all know the whole “flannel” and “thrift shop” thing related to Grunge. It’s a pretty well-known stereotype, but honestly it was deserved.

And last, but certainly not least, is Sub Pop - a great record label that put out a lot of great albums back in the day. Green River, early Nirvana, Mudhoney, Afghan Wigs, Tad, L7, Soundgarden, and so many other great local bands. The “Singles Club” was awesome - a new single every month.

So, after 30+ years in Seattle I figured we should have at least one song about the place.