Talking Tracks: Big Thank by King Youngblood

The album is 10 tracks that endeavor to capture the live sound of a rock band in the studio version. For fans of Cage the Elephant, Bush, and Kings of Leon.

Talking Tracks: Big Thank by King Youngblood April 26, 2023

Dan Ray

Raised by a single mother in the suburbs of Detroit, Dan discovered an early passion for singing, songwriting, and the arts as a whole. She got her BA in English and music at the University of Michigan, where she reported for the school’s paper, The Michigan Daily. She worked as a Senior News Reporter on the government beat, transitioned to arts writing, and eventually became the managing editor of the social media department. She moved to Seattle in 2017. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic and discouraged about the lack of press surrounding Seattle’s music scene, Dan made the decision to turn Dan’s Tunes, a fully fledged music journalism website focused on showcasing the Seattle area’s musicians, into its own startup. There’s so much music happening in the city that spawned Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Jimi Hendrix — among others — and Dan’s Tunes is determined to find and expose those outstanding acts. The goal is to have satellites in every major US city, uplifting diverse and compelling voices and helping music communities thrive. In 2020, Dan was featured in the Seattle Times’s year-end music critic poll. Other than her musical endeavors (singing, playing ukulele, and auditioning for American Idol four times before the age of 24) Ray is passionate about food and education around the American food system, and she’s also a large proponent of eliminating the stigma around mental health. Ray loves cats, especially her own, who is named Macaulay Culkin (but she’s a lady).

Photo by Jason Norman

On Talking Tracks, music journalist Dan Ray interviews indie artists as they play through their latest drops song by song. It’s a little bit like a curated Spotify playlist, except way more personal and in depth. In each episode, you’ll get to listen to the full album or EP right alongside the artist’s inspiration behind the tracks. Think Miley Cyrus’s Disney+ Backyard Sessions but with an artist you (probably) haven’t heard of (yet). Season two focuses on Seattle musicians.

Seattle raucous alt-rock band King Youngblood released their sophomore album, Big Thank, on May 13, 2022. In this episode of Talking Tracks, Dan and KY break down the meaning behind and the making of each song on the project — 10 tracks that endeavor to capture the live sound of a rock band in the studio version. For fans of Cage the Elephant, Bush, and Kings of Leon.

Listen below and subscribe to the full podcast here. Scroll down to see our photo story of the live recording. This episode was recorded at The Rendezvous with sound by Sean Aragon.

Track listing:
1. Big Thank – 17:43.
2. A Thousand Songs – 28:24.
3. Thread – 39:25.
4. Too Late, Too Soon – 54:43.
5. Cried in My Cadillac – 1:04:17.
6. Home Is Only a House – 1:15:57.
7. God I Am Exhausted – 1:27:08.
8. New Tomorrow — 1:35:18.
9/10. All in One Room — 1:43:47.

Listen to the recorded album here.

Seattle alt-rock band King Youngblood released its second album, Big Thank, on May 13, 2022. From left: electric cello player Chet Peterson, frontman Cameron Lavi-Jones, drummer Alix Daniel, and stand-in bassist Maurice Jones. Maurice is Cameron's father. Cameron started the King Youngblood project when he was only 11 years old. He's 23 as of this episode's recording.

Track two, "A Thousand Songs," was written with London Bridge Studio Owner Eric Lilavois, who was a guest on season one of Talking Tracks with his band The Copper Trees.

The first song Cameron ever wrote was called "The Aliens Will Be Kind." He was around kindergarten age when he wrote it. To hear a sample of it, head to the 35-minute mark of this episode.

The titles of the tracks on Big Thank are all written in different syntax: Some are in all capitals, some are all lowercase letters, and some are written in standard form. Cameron said they decided to stylize the titles this way so listeners go into the tracks in the right mindset. Track three, "Thread," is written in all caps and is also one of the highest-energy tracks on the album.

Most of the tracks on Big Thank have instrumental bridges instead of vocal bridges. Cameron said that wasn't a conscious decision they made but that it happened naturally because part of communication is allowing for space. Because the songs on this album are so lyrically dense, he wanted to allow people space to absorb the words.

Track four, "Too Late, Too Soon," was the first single from Big Thank. It was inspired by Cameron's experience of self-examination during the pandemic. It was also inspired by his experience at Seattle's CHOP, the section of Capitol Hill citizens took over during the race riots of the summer of 2020, in which King Youngblood held an educational sit in to discuss race. The band said Maxwell should cover this song. Dan chose Billie Eilish.

Track five, "Cried in My Cadillac," is Dan's favorite song on Big Thank. She loves to cry, and part of King Youngblood's mission is to normalize mental health issues. The band has a nonprofit called Hold Your Crown that focuses on youth mental health. Cameron wrote "Cried in My Cadillac" after he had a panic attack and crashed his car.

"God I Am Exhausted," track seven, talks about stress cleaning in order to regain control of your environment. Cameron chose Blink-182 to cover the song, and Dan chose Weezer. Cameron said Weezer is the right answer.

King Youngblood put out a comic book based on track eight, "New Tomorrow." It's the final all caps song on Big Thank. Cameron picked System of a Down to cover the track.

Track nine is a voice memo interlude into track 10, "All in One Room," a soft, acoustic, lullaby-esque song. The chorus of "All in One Room" goes: "If all of the world’s givers were all in one room, all in one room / Oh baby, I know one thing that's true / It would just be me and you." This line comes from a proverb in his family about how people are either givers or takers, and it can be difficult to find people who give as much as they take within a relationship. To Cameron, the chorus is about being thankful for finding those special relationships. Cameron picked Brandi Carlile to cover it. Dan picked Incubus.