Hey, remember that time you were in high school? Or, like most of us, have you banished those painful memories deep into your subconscious. We hope you’re prepared for this, because Corey Isenor is reliving some past trauma through his new single, “Teenage Blues,” and sharing his experiences of the linoleum and cinderblock world of Hants East Rural High School in Nova Scotia.
You can practically smell the mix of lysol and chalk dust through this video. They popped these schools out like they were on an assembly line. Standardized buildings for standardized education for standardized people.
For Isenor, his time at Hants East Rural High School sounds like it was probably pretty similar to what most people go through; the humdrum monotony of textbooks and lectures spiced up by the tiny deaths of a thousand embarrassments.
“I was pretty average and only started coming into my own by the time I graduated,” says Isenor. “It’s not an organic way of learning anything and everyone is forced to be overly self-conscious. Kinda the dumbest thing out there.”
“I tend to lose myself in memories of friends…,” sings Isenor.
It’s more than a message that he misses being around old friends, it’s a the sense that we lose something of ourselves as we age. We move on in many ways: our brain chemistry changes, we change, the way we see and experience the world changes. In some ways, though certainly not all of them, it’d be nice to that back.
“The lyrics are basically playing on the idea of living in the past and wishing for a time that was in actuality, also very emotional and dramatic and over-romanticized in the same way,” says Isenor.
At the core of of the song, and probably a good of the blues in general, is nostalgia. It’s a longing for something.
“Living in the past and romanticizing hindsight is the blues, though being lonely in the present is also pretty bluesy,” says Isenor.
“It’s more of a song about returning to that feeling of depression and emotional romance around being a teen, and how extreme and personal everything feels, but isn’t,” explains Isenor. “I live my life today, returning to the decisions I’ve made in the past, both good or bad, and wondering about different outcomes. And those fantasies themselves are the teenage blues.”
“Teenage Blues” is the first single from Isenor’s soon-to-be released album, Absinthe & Smoke, but we bet you can hear the tunes lives first, if you want to catch him around Nova Scotia this summer.
Tour Dates:
06.01.19 – Riverport, NS @ The Old Confidence Lodge
06.06.19 – Halifax, NS @ Gus’ Pub & Grill
06.14.19 – Dartmouth, NS @ New Scotland Brewing
06.30.19 – Halifax, NS @ Gus’ Pub & Grill
07.06.19 – Kentville, NS @ Deep Hollow Print
07.13.19 – Port Medway, NS @ Port Grocer
07.25.19 – Halifax, NS @ Timber Lounge
07.26.19 – Wolfville, NS @ The Rolled Oat