Best buds Thin Lips and Frances Quinlan tackle anxiety in their Shaking Through session
In the latest installment of Philly’s premiere music doc series, Shaking Through, Brian McTear and the rest of the gang at Weathervane Music welcomed local punks Thin Lips, along with Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan, to record a new track titled, “So Stoned.” Spoiler alert: it’s a pretty flippin’ good episode.
In the site’s summary, Weathervane states that it was Quinlan who curated the session to include the Chrissy Tashjian-fronted three-piece, as we soon learn that not only is Quinlan a collaborator on the track, but in Tashjian’s life as best buds.
“Its really special to me to be able to connect with other women who play music,” says Chrissy of Quinlan. “I don’t have any other friends like that, that I think about music with in that capacity, that aren’t Kyle [Pulley] or Mikey, who I’ve been playing music with for twenty years…and Mikey, longer, cause he’s my actual brother.”
The episode further shares background into Chrissy’s life as she discusses her experience of growing up with agoraphobia, which MayoClinic defines as “a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or that help wouldn’t be available if things go wrong.” Though still affected, Chrissy states that she’s found ways to manage the anxiety and talks about the necessity of facing your fears.
She states:
“I really learned that it’s ok to be afraid of things. Often times I can’t help it, but I can help what I do about it. I still get nervous every time I play, but if I avoid doing those things then I kind of end up shutting myself out of the world. I make music because I have to. Music is like my therapy.”
Allowing us to peek into this music therapy process of the song’s recording, the video reveals that Chrissy’s demo had initially moved in a slower, more “lethargic” state, but members Kyle and Mikey pushed for some higher tempo business. As a result, we see the song take shape in a happy medium — though when watching them perform the track, it doesn’t quite appear so. This is because in order to achieve this middle speed effect, they had to play the song super fast and then slow the track down. For more accurate production speak, they “recorded the song at 121 BPM and then slowed it down off the tape machine to 119 BPM.”
Though described as a challenging endeavor, the outcome proves well worth the struggle as the finished product, “So Stoned” is a complete and utter jam. Listen to that below, and then watch the entire episode below, below.