SOTW0724 San Fermin "Wasting on Me"
Ever since I saw them perform in Audiotree Live back in 2013, I've been hooked to San Fermin. They're my favorite band since then and I feel a really strong connection to them and what they write, both lyrically and musically.
I've written about them extensively before in previous iterations of this blog that are now long gone, I have seen them at least three times live –which is not easy because they don't tour on Mexico; also, I'm planning on a fourth one this June– and have almost all their vinyls signed. Hell, I wish I could forget everything about them because of a only-San-Fermin-forgetting-bacteria affecting my brain just so I could hear them for the first time again and get to experience them anew.
Now that that's been strongly established, they just released a new album called Arms on February 16th, 2024 and I'm fucking loving it. It feels raw, personal and really expressive.
From their bandcamp:
Arms, the fifth full length LP from indie rock mainstays San Fermin, was written by bandleader Ellis Ludwig-Leone in the topsy-turvy months after the end of two relationships, one very long and one very short. To help navigate the ultraviolet days, he turned to longtime collaborator and vocalist Allen Tate, who helped channel the experience into a lean 9-track LP. Written from the multiple viewpoints characteristic of San Fermin’s previous albums, but with stripped back musical accompaniment that exposes the dissociation, humor, and regret of a life turned upside down, Arms is San Fermin’s most emotionally vulnerable album to date, and features some of its most potent songwriting.
I've picked "Wasting on Me" as a song to represent this album, because it felt like something I would say or actually did some time long ago because it matches my personality. It's incredible how I identified with these lyrics. And they kind of hurt. Anyway, it was really a struggle to pick only one, so I would strongly suggest listening to every single one on the album 'cause I know you'll end up finding something for you.
Lyrics (via Genius)
Never meant to lead you down a road to sadness
But we arrived where there's nothing to be done
Could pretend there was a moment when we lost it
But we were running different races from the gun
You got all this time to do what you want
To find yourself a place you wanna be
And give your love to whoever you want
As long as you're not wasting on me
Like a run in the fabric of a summer
I'm a thread you should have nеver pulled at all
If now and then a story lеads you back to my name
Go ahead and just rewrite me by the fall
You got all this time to do what you want
To find yourself a place you wanna be
And give your love to whoever you want
As long as you're not wasting on me
You got all this time to do what you want
To find yourself a place you wanna be
And give your love to whoever you want
As long as you're not wasting on me
You're wasting on me
You're wasting on me
I hope you liked it. Please give San Fermin a chance and listen to their past albums, they're all really impressive. And if you have the chance to see them live, I can vouch they are even more so.
See you until the next time.