Indie Rock Songwriter Townes on His Latest Release, “Maury Povich” – Apartment613
Marissa M. Conner
3 min read
In this series of interviews, we delve into selections from the #ottmusic weekly Spotify playlist and ask local musicians about their new releases and inspirations. Townes new song “Maury Povich” overcome it playlist this week.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Apt613: Congratulations on the release of the single “Maury Povich”. It’s a pretty fun take on a breakup song, and after listening to it a few times, we’re so curious to know the story behind it. Did this come to you in a dream or is this song based on real events?
Cities: These are not real events. This song was kind of my version of a song for the music streaming era. Typically, my songs are about four minutes long, but these days songs are getting shorter and shorter and there’s pressure to create memorable songs quickly. I noticed that there are generic two-minute love songs that are doing well on streaming platforms these days, so I wanted to do something like this. However, I’m not really the type of person to make songs like that, so I basically parodied the style by making the lyrics nonsense.
Why Mauri? I was just thinking of a time when you’d have a PA day [known as a “professional activities” day, where students stay home on a school day while the school staff work on professional development] to college. I watched Maury’s show in the morning when I was 13. They would show ads for Everest College where some random guy was yelling at me to get off the couch and do something with my life. The song is therefore written from the point of view of someone shouting at Everest College.
Image by Matthew Radich, also known by his creative nickname Townes. Photo courtesy of Matthew Radich.
How did you record the song? Were there collaborators?
I recorded the song with Josh Hart at Audio Valley Recording Studios. The only other collaborator was my friend Liam Dwyre who plays drums on all my tracks.
Do you make demos of your music? How is this version different from previous versions of the song?
I wrote the demo for this song in December 2020. The main difference between the demos and the final version is the production quality. As for the writing, I mostly wrote the whole song and all of its parts before I went into the studio.
Still from the upcoming “Maury Povich” music video. Photo by Nicholas Wandel.
Who would be your dream collaborator if you could make a record with anyone?
Where can people get updates on Townes? What’s the best way for listeners to support you? Is this single from an upcoming album?
People can get updates via town on Instagram and townesmusic.com.
The best way for listeners to support me is to listen to my music and attend shows when they recur. September 25 at Club SAW is my first post-pandemic show! Fingers crossed, everything is going as planned.
No album yet. I’m just playing the singles game for now, but I’ll do an EP in the future that has a more ambitious visual element.
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