Andrew Nelson knew he was ready for change. He had been trapped for far too long, and it was now or never. As frontman of Americana band Great Peacock, the singer-songwriter had been feeling unfilled in his life, from his day job of delivering food to romance, and it seemed endlessly mundane. On one particularly uneventful day, making his way along Interstate 40 East between Knoxville, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina, a new song called “All I Ever Do” struck him like lightning.
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“Hold me underwater / Nail me to the cross / Lead me to the slaughter / ‘Cause I’m already lost,” he pleads. A near-baptismal spirit floods electric guitars and romping percussion, and Nelson’s voice is sharp, emotional, and relentless. He allows himself a moment of clarity, uncovering that a dying relationship was just the start. His whole life needed to change.
“All I Ever Do” jumpstarts the band’s forthcoming third studio album, Forever Worse Better, slated for release October 9. It’s a propulsive, earth-scorching opener that sets in motion the album’s entire arc, as Nelson and his bandmates Frank Keith IV (bass) and Blount Floyd (guitar, harmony) unravel some surprisingly weighty material.
“This song is simple. The music is simple. The lyrics are simple. It came to me in a simple way. It’s the never-ending song about a heart’s desire and the lack of that desire being fulfilled. A love song, in a weird sort of way,” Nelson explains to American Songwriter, premiering the first single today. “[It is] weird because it’s also a bit different. It’s a desire for change. But also a desire to not care. An acknowledgment of the heart’s desire coupled with a mental desire to forget and move on to bigger and better things.”
During his drive, the hook came first. “All I ever do is dream about you,” he laments, letting every ounce of melancholy to pour forth. He recalls exactly how the song took shape, relating it to the bigger picture, “I was driving for work. The day job. The thing that all aspiring musicians hate to have. But when you’re in your late 30s like me, you’re smart enough to have one. I was thinking about a person I’d been seeing romantically for almost a year. This person had made it clear it wouldn’t work out. But I didn’t want to accept that.”
“Plus, this person would still lead me on just enough to give me false hope. I was on 40 East, driving to deliver food to restaurants I was too poor to eat at, and I thought, ‘All I ever do is dream about you, and I don’t want to anymore!’” he continues. “I thought it in an angry and pathetic and hopeless way. It was like I knew I had a drug problem, wanted to kick it, but wasn’t sure I could. So I did what I could.”
He then sang the chorus into his voice memo app. “The melody came on the first pass. I pulled over and figured out the music with the piano on my GarageBand app. Then, I wrote the lyrics in my head as I drove for the next two days. It wasn’t my intention that the song would be the first on the album,” he says, “but I’m glad it is. It’s in a way what the whole album is about. Not a lover. But me. It’s about me. I was ready for change. Ready to put my two weeks in at that job. Ready for a real relationship. Ready for success of some kind. Ready to like myself. Ready for love. This album is ultimately about wanting more while also being ok with who you are.”
The follow-up to 2018’s Gran Pavo Real, Forever Worse Better examines the struggle to be heard, self-worth, and finding hope amidst heartache and tragedy. Songs like “Heavy Load,” “Dissatisfaction,” “Forever, Worse, or Better” and “Learning to Say Goodbye” display tremendous pain but also excellent, smartly-written stories. Great Peacock undeniably hit their stride.
Listen to “All I Ever Do” below.
Photo Credit: Harrison Hudson
