[Editor’s Note from JMM: Oscar Wilde once said, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” However, as evidenced by his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, doppelgängers can be a very different story. They can show us an altered version of us and a bit of perspective. Wheeling, West Virginia based rock trio Mr. Fancy Pants continues that theme with the release of their sophomore album Doppelgängers tomorrow, Friday, April 5.
Cover design by David Klug
On much of the album, singer-songwriter Sean Decker (who also plays guitar and occasional percussion) reflects on doppelgängers, specifically younger versions of himself self and the ways he’s similar and different. For example, on “Doppelganger,” he asks “How do I know it’s you?/How do I know it’s (I’m) not your doppelganger?”
Doppelgängers further builds on the band’s 2017 debut Let’s Pants, showcasing their growth and offering an engaging mix of rock, folk and alternative-tinged tunes. The band also features Ryan Sears (bass, backing vocals, additional percussion) and Matt Klempa (drums, backing vocals, percussion).
Joining them for the album is David Klug (backing vocals, additional percussion), who helped produce and record the album at his studio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as The Great Pantaloony Choir (Bethany Decker, Gideon Decker, Greta Decker, Mindy Sears, Ike Sears, Desi Sears, Josh Bommer, Clint Sutton, Kelly Strautman, Serena Sutton, Winnie Sutton, Jocelyn Carlson, Hazel Iafrate, CeCe Iafrate, Izzi Iafrate, Mario Muscar, Flannery Muscar, Nico Muscar, Brian Whorton, Leslie Decker Carothers, Owen Carothers, Zoe Bucella: additional vocals on “We’ll Be There.”) Additional Recording for “We’ll Be There” was done by Wes Ebeling at TSG Studio.
The band will celebrate the album’s release the same day with a show with Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates at Waterfront Hall.
Below Decker pens an essay about how the album’s title came to be.]
The original title of the new album was going to be “Return of the Slacks”. Our first album was called “Let’s Pants”; a slightly humorous Bowie reference that emitted that ‘please allow us to introduce ourselves’ kind of energy that you want in a title for a first album. So “Return of the Slacks’ felt like a perfect title for our follow up record; it keeps the pants gag going and tells everyone, ‘Hey, we’re back!’. And then we started trying to come up with album artwork ideas and each idea had the same major issue i.e. the record is not a comedy album, and we’re neither Weird Al nor Ray Stevens, and we don’t want a silly cover for an album that isn’t silly. We already had the song “Doppelgänger”, so we said, okay let’s just call it “Doppelgängers” The album title is slightly different than track title and the term invokes the idea of TWO or a 2nd–perfect..great, this is the second album, boom, done.
But, the minute the title changed, my perception of the album changed. I started thinking not just about two or 2nd, but all of the notions that the term Doppelgängers brings to mind. The most direct translation of the word is “Duplicate Walkers”. So…what does that mean…Twins? Copies? Imposters? Fakes? And then I thought about the individual tracks through that lens. They don’t all fit the theme exactly, but they also all weren’t all written by the same person under the same conditions. I wrote the song “Warm” 20+ years ago. No wife, no kids, no mortgage, no career. It was written by someone who looked like me, but that person didn’t write “Come Back” or “We’ll Be There”, I did. That guy wanted to be Elvis Costello and write an Elvis Costello song. He had the kind of anxiety that would never allow him to express anything genuine. Just a kid who wanted to write Stephen Malkmus lyrics that used a lot of words to say nothing. Today, I’m a ’too online’, 45-year-old man with a very different type of anxiety, who doesn’t have the time or energy to write those kinds of lyrics. That boy was my Doppelgänger and I’m his. But y’know what? I still like that song he wrote. It’s a banger, and the guitar solo rips. Why wasn’t it on the first album? I have no idea, but I am glad we waited. Anyway, I think that kid would like some of the songs I’ve written too.
And that duality is basically the skeletal structure of the album. For example, in a song like “Trigger My Style” that theme manifests itself in this rant against the privileged and the powerful–the politicians, the super rich, etc, etc. How, they are the imposters and the phonies and the liars. But in the last verse it’s me saying, ‘ah man, I could have used this time and energy and space to say something real about myself, maybe something original.’ But I like the phrase “Trigger My Style”. I’m not 100% sure what it means, but it sounds like it means something.
Now, I could probably dissect each track and show you how each reflects these themes, but no one needs that in their lives, and it really muddies the audience’s experience. I mean, I’m not pondering completely different orbs than everybody else. My concerns about life and the future and my kids are pretty normal, I suppose. And that’s what comes out in the album; my general and specific anxieties about…[gestures broadly].
Sean Decker
Contributor
Sam is the lead singer / guitarist of Wheeling, West Virginia rock band Mr. Fancy Pants.
