Newquay, UK surf punk artist Tooth Gore, aka Kobi Joe, has today released his sophomore album, For Losers, By Losers, that melds gutsy fuzzed up guitars, emotive raw punk energy and hooky reverb drenched 50’s doo-wop vibes. Lyrically the album channels his uncertainties and anxieties, capturing both the joy and terror that comes with youth. Tooth Gore has a series of live performances on the way, as well as festival appearances, and a glut of singles throughout the year. Kobi Joe has also provided The Punk Site with an exclusive track by track insight into For Losers By Losers.

Uncomfortable

“Uncomfortable was a very personal track for me to write, as it is about my social anxiety and how hard I find basic things like holding conversations. I originally pitched it like my own theme tune. That being said, it was a cathartic experience to record and hear come together as this absolute powerhouse that feels almost on the brink of collapse. I always knew this would be the opening track to explode at the start of the album and I’m super happy with how it turned out.”

I Hate My Collarbones

“I Hate My Collarbones was another deeply personal song, albeit a fair bit slower paced than Uncomfortable. It came about at a time when I was listening to a lot of midwestern emo bands (mostly Modern Baseball and Joyce Manor) and is again about my personal shortcomings and how I often feel uncomfortable in my own skin. When I sat down to write the lyrics, this song was special in that the words just seemed to flow out of me almost in one go. Then when we [producer Ross and I] came to record it we fuzzed the hell out of the distorted guitars, cranked up the volume and the end result is an emotional trainwreck (which is why it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album).”

Fungus, Actually

“Fungus, Actually is a unique song because it’s an inside joke within itself. The first track from my self-released first album Halloween was called Werms. Now, Werms is a song all about the inevitability of death and how eventually we all end up as worm food in the ground. However, sometime after the release of Werms I learned that in fact various species of fungi are actually the main cause of decomposition after death. Betrayal was an understatement, this fact changed everything. So when it came time to write album 2 i wrote Fungus, Actually as a kind of retraction to correct my mistakes. Of course this song is still about the inevitability of death, I haven’t gone soft or anything.”

Firebird

“I wrote Firebird as both a nihilistic comment about the unstoppable flow of time, and how all things are destined to change and end, as well as a loving tribute to, in my opinion, the greatest video game of all time: Outer Wilds. Outer Wilds is a space exploration game centred around a time loop (Think Groundhog Day but in space) and – without gushing too much – the message is to treasure what time we have and spend it doing the things you love with the people you love. Yeah so basically I ripped them off and wrote Firebird. This was also the first song we finished in the 4 weeks I spent at Cube Studios and boy was that satisfying.”

Cold Heart, Warm Skin

“Cold Heart, Warm Skin was super fun to record, it is arguably one of the more chill songs on the record but still has this thumping surf rock drum beat throughout the whole thing. It’s also one of the funnier songs because it sounds so upbeat and happy whilst ultimately being a self-deprecating love song.”

Black Cat

“Black cat is probably the angriest song outright on the record, it was written in response to an email I received from some manager or record label. When I was just starting out as an independent musician I was emailing and messaging everyone I could to try to get any support or advice on how to make it in this bizarre industry. One of the people I emailed replied with an incredibly condescending email about how he doesn’t deal with punk music and to come back when I decide to be a professional and make ‘real music’. Anyway what’s an incredibly petty person like myself to do but write the most generic pop punk song I could think of. Recording this one was also a blast, I especially enjoyed the look on Ross’s (who recorded the drums for the album) face when I told him the BPM was 260.”

The Lighthouse

“The Lighthouse was a complicated song for me to write, since I wrote it about a night out where I took some less than favourable substances and had a meltdown on the beach. Because of this, I think recording the song was a very cathartic experience, transforming that terrible night into an absolutely rocking tune. Also I just love lighthouses, Robert Eggers’ 2019 film The Lighthouse is one of my all time favourites. Marevo Collective’s video game No-one Lives Under The Lighthouse from the same year is another huge inspiration for me as a person, so writing a song about lighthouses was just a no brainer.”

No Fighting In Doo-Wop

“I wrote both No Fighting in Doo-Wop and Cold Heart, Warm Skin in the same sleepless night after a couple drinks. This song, however, was just a completely gushing love song both to my girlfriend and (don’t tell her this) my favourite band The Frights. The name comes from a rant lead singer Mikey Carnevale had during the last song of their 2018 show Live at The Observatory, where he berated some people for fighting during a doo-wop song stating ‘There is no fighting in doo-wop’ and the rest is history. Doo-Wop was also the first song we recorded for the second album, a month before we recorded the rest, making it a pivotal moment in the development of the sound of Tooth Gore.”

So?

“So? For me, it is different from the rest of the album, it’s full of this dumb youthful energy and happiness that I think is somewhat rare in my writing. Even sonically, the punk sound that I usually love is toned down here to make this bubbly surf-indie hybrid that I think makes this track so special. We spent a lot of time in the studio recording layers and layers of beautiful vocal harmonies that don’t really appear anywhere else in the record. This song for me also captures the feeling of summer living in a seaside town, which gives a special nostalgic feeling for  me personally. A delight from start to finish to record and hear come together.”

Haunting

“This was the first song I wrote for what would become this album. It was so different in the creation process to anything I’d done before, since I started writing songs with a drum machine, allowing me to make every part of the songs exactly how I wanted. ‘Haunting’ came about at a particularly low point in my life – in terms of mental health  – and during this time all I could listen to was the jangly, angry surf punk songs of The Frights, and all I wanted to do was write songs like theirs. I didn’t know it at the time, but the birth of this song, which mimicked the thoughts in my head during panic attacks, marked a turning point in the sound of Tooth Gore and led to the creation of this whole album.”

Lila

“Lila is an outright love song, about meeting a person and falling so in love that it reminds you of who you really are and cuts through all the walls we build around ourselves. It was the last song we recorded for the record and the juxtaposition between the quieter verses and build up to the loud chorus was inspired by old Pixies tracks from the Doolittle era. It still has touches of the self-deprecation that marks Tooth Gore tracks but it was my first proper outright love song.”

This Song Is Stolen

“The final track on For Losers, By Losers was a full account of the imposter syndrome I feel every time I try to write a song. With so many talented artists making thousands of songs every year it was difficult for me to feel like I had anything new to say, this song was the product of that feeling. It also uses the ‘Doo-Wop’ chord progression that’s been used in probably hundreds of songs, so the title is a nod to that, how songs can be referenced and changed until they’re something completely new.”

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