Timed to align with Valentine’s Day this week, XPN Artist To Watch Slaughter Beach Dog released a new track called “I’m In Love.” It’s easy to fall for the twinkly keyboard playing and dynamic drum fills, but this is far from your typical love song. “I’m in love with a contract killer,” sings frontman Jake Ewald. He continues: “She’s all I need but I wonder while she sleeps – does she dream of killing me?”
In a note about the track, Ewald wrote “I think I wrote this after reading Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. It is hard to imagine another reason for writing this song. Happy to share it with you now on this highest of romantic holidays. Smooches!” An older version of the song had previously been released on Bandcamp but Ewald decided against including it on the band’s last release, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling. He noted that “it failed to pass the ‘will it blend’ test for the final tracklist.” Indeed, it’s a frank, frightening track.
Along with the perfectly timed release of “I’m In Love,” Slaughter Beach Dog has just announced a month-long North American tour in April. The folksy Nashville singer-songwriter Erin Rae, a contributor on their last album and frequent collaborator, is the opening act for all the shows. The tour will begin with an April 1st show at the State Theater in State College. Currently, there are no Philly dates but you can remedy your heartbreak over this fact by rewatching the band’s Free at Noon Concert from last October right here. WXPN crowned the group an Artist to Watch last October and also featured a virtual solo Free at Noon from Ewald in early 2021.