Mickelson – Drowning In An Inflatable Pool
Format: CD – Vinyl – Digital
Label: Independent
Release: 2020
‘DROWNING IN AN INFLATABLE POOL’
coming Aug. 15th!
‘Drowning In An Inflatable Pool’ is the third Mickelson record once again recorded and produced by Mickelson in his Bay Area studio. These songs were all born in the Trump era and lyrically they are rooted in the stresses we are feeling as Americans.
Jagged Tooth an animated video that will be premiered on American Songwriter:
The album includes not only politically but socially, environmentally, and the individual stresses of life that are more pronounced in the current cultural climate. Since his “A Wondrous Life“ album (2018) Mickelson had toured extensively with these songs and found that folks everywhere shared these same concerns. He also toured Europe for the first time with a button on his guitar strap stating “Not My President” in case there was any doubt what he was singing about.
“The world seemed to change on a dime when Trump was elected. He wasted no time pushing a racist agenda, rolling back Obama policies and making a mockery of the presidential office. His abuse of power was so profound it left me with a feeling of helplessness I couldn’t help but write about.” says Mickelson. “The Lockdown was the first song I wrote that addressed these concerns in literal terms. These are the rollbacks, that no one will ever read. These are the cutbacks, we’d rather be rich than green”
Mickelson never claims to be a political writer and always preferred to be more narrative than commentary. It appears that was inescapable. Even in the title track Drowning In An Inflatable Pool he is suggesting that there are plenty of real concerns we are facing, we do not need to fuel more self-induced dramas.
For the first single Jagged Tooth, Mickelson explains “Perhaps the worst assault on our society has been the acceptance of lying as a way of social discourse. When the president, his administration, and Fox News are constantly bombarding us with outright lies it creates highly dysfunctional normalcy. This led me to write Jagged Tooth. Every word from this character’s mouth is a lie, an excuse, or a deflection. I was playfully writing from the inner workings of Trump’s mind. I even warn the listener: I may be amoral so you need to be careful. My halls are filled with dreams I’ve killed and the people who live there, their lives are in peril. This thinking made me picture America as just a big, dark, macabre carnival. With that in mind, I wanted to create a video that would play into that darkness and the animated concept was born. Our country at this time in history a lot like a Saturday morning cartoon. Barkers, shocking exhibits and we pay the price of admission every day to see it.”
Website: Mickelson