How do you keep creating when it feels like everything has already been done? It’s a valid question—one Katherine Perkins grapples with on her forthcoming LP, Helpless Love (Twelve I Eight). “Molecules” is one of the more infectious moments on the Maine-based singer/songwriter’s second solo LP. (Perkins also fronts indie-folk outfit Rose Hips & Ships.) The song’s innate catchiness is bolstered by a propulsive Wurlitzer groove, transforming an existential crisis into something exhilarating.
“Chords usually come first for me, and I was really intoxicated with the ones in ‘Molecules’ even before the lyrics emerged,” says Perkins, who was raised on Mount Desert Island, home to Bar Harbor and most of Acadia National Park. “I could hear the urgency and energy of what the song was trying to say, but I was feeling submerged by the sense of being a tiny, frictionless fleck in the universe with only moderate use to society.”
As Perkins marinated in her angst, the song to took shape. “And then the band—bless them forever—really brought both the forward momentum and buoyancy I was hoping to achieve,” she says.
Created by Ana Mouyis, the animated video matches the tune’s wit and restlessness. “Ana knocked it out of the park with the color palette, the vision and the humor,” says Perkins. “I can’t imagine a better representation of the heart and spirit of the song.”
We’re proud to premiere Katherine Perkins’ “Molecules” video. Helpless Love is out September 25.
—Hobart Rowland
