The new single from the artist is a song about literal puppy love, with proceeds benefiting two rescue organizations
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Sure, love songs are great and all.
A little emo? Always good for a nice scream and/or cry.
And when it comes to champagne-poppin’, money-makin’, ass-shakin’ anthems, I AM HERE 2 PARTY, MY PEOPLE.
But sometimes we want something true. A song about the most unconditional of allegiances. A track about the purest of feelings. A tribute to an unbreakable, unshakeable bond—not the affection between two humans, but the irreplaceable relationship we have with (wo)man’s best friend.
And good news. In his new song (out yesterday!) Mt. Feral gives us just that in the form of a sonic salute to his canine companion. This is “Rudy.”
This is the first single off the upcoming Mt. Feral record The Divine Mundane, and features BdBK fave Jack McLoughlin of Yella Belly on pedal steel and and organ by Nat Osborn. Ahead of the release, Mike Farrell, the man behind Mt. Feral, offered some background on the making of the track, the feelings behind it and the two dogs that inspired the song:
“I have a tendency to write my songs over periods of years, and back in 2017 when I was dog-sitting the titular Rudy, who belonged to a friend, I recorded a voice memo on my phone with the basic chords, melody, and a few lyrics. Later that year I adopted my dog (his name is Stanley Banana), but I didn’t get around to revisiting the song until 2019 on a writing retreat upstate. The rest of it poured out all at once—there was little editing of the lyrics or music afterwards. I was just sitting there thinking about how much I loved my dog and what a life-changing experience adopting him had been. Calling him ‘Rudy’ gave me just enough distance from my actual life to be able to go to that vulnerable place. Sometimes songwriting is laborious and overthought, sometimes you just tap into something floating around you. Maybe it could have used a little more lyrical polish but I wanted to honor that experience.
When tracking with producer Kiyoshi Matsuyama we knew we wanted to keep it feeling as live as possible. It wasn’t until the home stretch that we brought in Jack & Nat, who just took this tune to another level. I’m a big fan of field recordings & sound collage and knew I wanted to incorporate some element of that. I took a hand recorder with me on a camping trip up to a farm outside Ithaca and recorded some sounds of Stanley running around a field, my wife calling for him (as Rudy, haha), some crickets, and put it all together into what is probably my favorite moment on the record.”
Along with releasing a song, Mike is also putting his money where his dog-lovin’, music-makin’ mouth is and donating a percentage of proceeds from the track to two rescue organizations.
“A few months ago I had a crazy, small world, chance run-in with Sarah from Calle to Casa Animal Rescue, a group that works to spay, neuter, and find homes for street dogs in Tulum, Mexico. My in-laws have a place near Tulum, and it turns out Sarah stays in the house next door to theirs when she visits the area and had actually met them at a happy hour just a few weeks prior. Tulum is an easy place to take from, tourism has ravaged the area– meeting Sarah felt like the universe showing me a way to give back. I’ll be splitting a percentage of whatever (if any) money this song makes between Calle to Casa and Korean K9 Rescue, the agency we adopted Stanley from.”
Grab the track on Bandcamp now, and if you’ve got a dog of your own, please hug them and tell them I … I mean, you… love them. Then maybe play “Rudy” for them a few times. I bet they’ll like it too.
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Follow Mt. Feral at @mtfarrell.jpg, buy music on Bandcamp, add songs to your Spotify playlists and find everything Mt. Feral at mtferal.com.
Feature image (provided by the artist): Nick Collingwood