Trying bloomed out of a bedroom bored with big rock bands. In my small apartment, I started to play with children’s instruments—glockenspiel, melodica, ukulele. At the heart of what I do, I’m chasing the feelings of wonder that accompany growing up. I try to keep my music playful, even if it is sad at times. In that spirit, the ‘Marathon of Fright’ double single is a sort of attempt to contribute to the lacking collection of Halloween holiday music. While the dense wall of sound on “Nobody Loves Halloween Like You Do” references ghosts and Halloween, “Marathon of Fright” lives in spooky, ghoulish splendor. The song was written to accompany a wonderfully cheesy trailer for an old horror film circa 1950—the lyrics take direct inspiration from the over-the-top cartoon. Growing from the small bedroom instruments, Trying’s sound followed after artists I’d come to know as indie classics (thanks internet) like Arcade Fire, The Magnetic Fields, Death Cab For Cutie, and the Violent Femmes. Taking influence from the layered and quirky sound of those acts, I added 12 string guitar, violin, and fuzz to my songs, sparking the thick arrangement on “Nobody Loves Halloween Like You Do.” You might also notice a similarity to The Smiths, I adore them, like every other mopey indie kid. I think there's a jangly, almost twee sense to my music that reminds me of them, even a bit of the dreamier influence of later '80s and '90s alt acts, but maybe that's just me. I feel a little weirder telling you about the lyrics, like I’m putting words to the words that I already put to the music. I suppose you could play ‘Mopey Indie Kid Bingo’ and decide if I’m another Morrissey wanna-be or pulling off sweet, poetic justice to coming of age in the midwestern US. Maybe neither. On “Nobody Loves Halloween Like You Do” the droning instrumentation gives way to half-sung verses about uncertainty between two places, missing home and longing for somewhere new. Similar themes of moving and distance recur throughout the currently unannounced debut Trying album, targeted for early 2018. From going away to college, watching friends and family move even further away, and eventually relocating from my previous Columbus, Ohio base to Brooklyn, distance was on my mind a lot. I suppose it’s a somewhat universal thing that people experience as we grow older, whether it’s a physical or emotional distance. “Nobody Loves Halloween Like You Do” directly references my move to Brooklyn. There are the ‘oh, of course you’re from the Midwest comments,’ the empty feelings of a city without the people I loved, and the awe-inspiring sensations of a new home. Our previous releases include the ‘21’ EP—featuring “21,” the first song from our debut album, which details a distance felt when you don’t want to be a part of the party—and 2016’s ‘Cheerleading’ EP.