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<\/a>Set to be released on Halloween, the two-song single brings together a pair of indie rock\u2019s finest songwriters: Devilishly campy troubadour Dan Sartain and Jacob Turnbloom, frontman of the sardonically and melodically rich \u201860s surf pop revivalists Mrs. Magician. It\u2019s a curious union \u2013 Sartain\u2019s style ranges from folk and rockabilly to all-out \u201870s punk while Turnbloom delves into a more experimental lo-fi indie rock realm with his band, and as a solo artist. But after both musicians ended up on tour together, they eventually became good friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven’t personally known him for that long but I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time,\u201d Turnbloom admitted. \u201cWe honestly didn’t talk that much on tour — we started emailing back and forth due to our mutual love for B movies, horror films, and unknown actors. In fact, Dan has a really cool idea to start a magazine someday — kind of like The Enquirer<\/em>but with all B-list actors, like: \u2018You’ll never believe what Felissa Rose wore at Chili’s today!”<\/p>\n Horror films, tabloids and friendship aside, The Grave Walks can actually trace their beginnings back to Swami Records \u2013 a San Diego independent record label founded in 2000 and run by hometown rock icon John Reis (Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and The Night Marchers). Both Mrs. Magician and Sartain have released studio albums on Swami, most notably the critically acclaimed 2010 full-length Dan Sartain Lives<\/em> and Magician\u2019s San Diego Music Award-winning 2013 debut masterpiece Strange Heaven<\/em>. When The Night Marchers went on tour last year, they called on both of \u2018em to join in.\u00a0 It was the first time they had met each other and shortly after it wrapped, Turnbloom reached out to Sartain about a track he had recorded at home.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote \u2018She’s a Suicide\u2019 quickly one afternoon and just sent it to Dan because I wanted to hear how the song would sound with his voice,\u201d Turnbloom explained. \u201cThe original version, I’m singing it and it just sounded too normal — it was lacking something.\u201d<\/p>\n Lacking what, we\u2019ll never know exactly. As it\u2019s now recorded,\u201cShe\u2019s a Suicide\u201d bounces along with a sprightly surf beat, while raunchy electric guitar stabs and spooky organ lines prop up Sartain\u2019s bewitching vocals. When the accompanying B-side, \u201cTeresa, I Love You,\u201d sashays into place, it\u2019s a delightful departure. Drums are replaced by tic-tac percussive smacks; Sartain\u2019s alluring croon transforms into a wobbly howl over lyrics like, \u201cWell let me take you to the coast \/ Let me be your gracious host \/ Let me show you brand new things \/ We\u2019ll find the ghost of Jimmy Dean.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn [\u201cTeresa, I Love You\u201d], Dan wrote a wonderfully dark love song,\u201d Turnbloom said. \u201cHe sent that track back to me and I honestly didn’t really know what to add at first because the original track of just his acoustic guitar and vocals sounded cool to me. It was really bare and had a kind of Everly Brothers vibe … so I stepped in and f—ed it up [risas<\/em>]. I really love how it came out. I can picture Dan singing it strolling through a graveyard, drunk on some tropical concoction I’d probably order on a Tiki Tuesday at Bar Pink.\u201d<\/p>\n The Grave Walks works as the name of the project, but the phrase also conjures the atmosphere of the record as a whole: Foggy marshes, blood moons, creaky backwoods shacks and lurching monsters make their way out through the soul of dusty, warbling tape cassette recorders. In other words, it turned out exactly how Turnbloom imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth songs are simple, messy and raw. I did the extra instrumentation in a closet at my apartment, and I recorded \u2018She’s a Suicide\u2019 in my parents\u2019 garage. I don’t know where Dan recorded the body of \u2018Teresa, I Love You\u2019 but I’m assuming he just did it all at home in Birmingham, Alabama. Once I had both tracks, I just starting messing with EQs and different reverbs to make it sound somewhat murky and eerie \u2026 it’s junky and kinda strange — not unlike Dan and myself.\u201d<\/p>\n The true DIY, home-recorded 7\u201d gets its official physical release on Halloween at M-Theory Records in Mission Hills. Pressed in an extremely limited 300-copy run by Washington D.C.-based independent label Windian Records, 150 will be available on transparent green vinyl and 150 will be on opaque white wax (which are also currently up for pre-order now at the label\u2019s sitio web<\/a>). Fittingly, the records will also have a quote from Karloff hand-etched near the center label, which reads, \u201cThe monster was the best friend I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, The Grave Walks\u2019 forthcoming single might be the only memento from the duo for the foreseeable future. According to Turnbloom, \u201cIt would be cool to keep making songs [with Sartain], but it will just happen when it happens.\u201d Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. The prospect of being left with only two songs from such an intriguing collaboration is the true horror here \u2013 a waking nightmare that may haunt us forevermore.<\/p>\n