Simplicity has mistakenly become a complex notion, reduced to being needlessly patted down in search of its secrets, hiding somewhere behind its blunt facade. But for New Jersey’s Alex Bleeker, it’s not a trending aesthetic or an attempt at a challenging art form, it quite simply is a love for the music—a quiet disposition for the soft brush of a drum and the steady march of an acoustic guitar. It’s the complete abandon of expectation that fuels his “Mashed Potatoes” single, his second to be released ahead of his forthcoming album, Heaven on the Faultline.
As the bassist for Real Estate and frontman of his own indie rock band, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, Bleeker is not unaccustomed to change. Though he often switches lanes, he still drives his machine in the same direction, toward a weary but patient man, sitting in the same chair with the same guitar in his hand, strumming along to ease his heavy mind. “Mashed Potatoes” takes the slow, staring-at-a-blue-sky rhythm of a Jack Johnson song and molds it to an old, blues folk song, where the melody, along with everything else, remains a constant, while the only thing that keeps changing is you.
Easing into a stream of refined consciousness, he churns his thoughts into words as they come: “Hey man, they tell you go get a job / Making music is a young man’s game and they’re never going to play your song on the radio.” But within it, there is peace, a sense of pride at knowing what it is you want, even if no one else wants it to for you. “This song is about eradicating toxicity from your life and concentrating on whatever it is that brings you joy,” he admits. “Cups of coffee, mashed potatoes, juice…. sometimes things really are that simple.”
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