After 30 years, at least three bands, 500-plus shows, six studio albums and some bicoastal back and forth, Chris Staples is finally getting a taste of domesticity. Settled and apparently quite content in Richmond, Va., the indie-rock journeyman has found a way to lower the rate of speed on his brain’s 12-lane highway (see below) and take us all on a scenic road trip of his psyche (or thereabouts).
Recorded and produced in his home studio, Don’t Worry is like an initial firm handshake from a close friend that evolves into a hug. Staples’ latest batch of tunes unfold with leisurely efficiency—relaxed but never sluggish, nostalgic in an almost offhand way, nudged along by fluid arrangements, effortless harmonies, fingerpicked guitar lines and understated piano, pedal steel and synth. Staples offers a bit on each song below.
—Hobart Rowland
1) “Doesn’t Matter Now”
“This song describes walking around all night until the sun comes up, listening to a Walkman. I did this a lot one summer. It was peaceful, and no one ever bothered me—surprisingly.”
2) “A Cold New York Morning”
“I was pretty much done with my record … I thought. I was sitting on my couch one night when I had the idea for this song. It’s the kind of song that just sort of writes itself. I walked out to my shed and wrote this one in about 15 minutes.”
3) “San Pedro Avenue”
“I was on my first tour, in the middle of summer in San Antonio, Texas. Scorching heat. I was probably 18, but I looked 14. I met a woman in the street who must’ve felt a motherly impulse toward me and was concerned.”
4) “Don’t Worry”
“I asked Kylie Dailey to sing on this one. I’m a huge fan of her music, and we’ve never met in person. She recorded her vocals in an Airbnb while on vacation with her family.”
5) “Open Mind”
“I make sample packs sometimes for other creators. The music for this song was a group of samples I made one day and decided to keep it for myself. They sounded like a song to me. I wrote the lyrics two years earlier and mashed them together.”
6) “Good Enough For Now”
“My friend Alan Parker played pedal steel on this, and it really gave it some proper twang.”
7) “A Little Blurry”
“This was a song commission for a wonderful married couple. They met as teenagers, fell in love and separated when they went to separate colleges. They didn’t talk for decades, reconnected and got married years later. Their story is wonderful, and I wanted it to be on my record. They came to a show of mine recently.”
8) “Familiar Kind Of Blue”
“I overheard someone say that their mind was like a 12-lane highway. I thought it was a such a perfect metaphor for a busy mind, and I had to use it in a song.”
9) “Talk About Your Day”
“This is a song about my late mother. I was dreaming about her frequently in the years that followed her passing, and it made for some hard mornings.”
10) “Two Carat Diamond”
“Personal freedom gets whittled away when you aren’t paying attention.”
See Chris Staples live.
