Singled Out: Jonah The Runner's Cardinal Park

12-20-2018

Houston alternative trio Jonah The Runner just released their new EP "Cardinal Park" and to celebrate we asked Ean Tillett to tell us about the title track. Here is the story:

In the two years that had passed since we released our first EP, I began pushing myself to develop more intricate guitar lines and licks to further my songwriting, as well as guitar playing, skills. Cardinal Park was the second song that I came up with, and the very first guitar line was actually the same one that is used after the first soft verse. After I came up with that guitar line, it was really just a fairly quick process of getting the whole song written out. Everything about that song just flowed so easily from a writing perspective, well except for the guitar solo but I'll say a little more on that further down. I'm actually most proud of the bridge chord progression, and I'm still not entirely sure how I managed to get that out, but it is one of the favorite guitar lines I've written right next to "Lost my mind" from our first EP.

After I had the song layout, the lyrics also came fairly easily. I was going through a semi rough patch in life dealing with some personal issues with a person and the song directly reflects some of the thoughts that I had at the time that I could never get myself to talk about. The first line of the song "You're keeping me on edge-wrapped around your finger/ I can't be just friends-a sour taste that lingers" ended up basically perfectly summing up what I had been feeling at the time, so it was only appropriate to sing it again at the end but in a much heavier mood. I believe that line is really the basis of a theme for the song, the rest are just other thoughts on my situation.

In post production of the EP I knew I wanted a guitar solo in the bridge. We messed around with different ideas, but ultimately I ended up just sitting down for almost three hours to force myself to come up with something. Soloing has always been a huge almost insecurity of mine, so writing the solo for Cardinal Park really was the biggest test to myself to keep growing in music writing abilities. I'm extremely proud of how this song came out, and even if only 2 people were to ever hear it or like it, it will without a doubt always be one of my favorite songs I have written.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!