Arlo McKinley shares thoughts on every song on new 'The Mess We're In' album

Before he released “This Mess We’re In,” his second album on the Nashville label Oh Boy Records, Arlo McKinley was getting a sense of the anticipation for it by working the road.

The singer-songwriter was at home in Cincinnati last month, unwinding from an East Coast tour and gearing up for his first trip to Europe, where a sold-out date in London was a highlight on the itinerary.

“It’s weird. It still just kind of amazes me,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to what I’m doing being a thing that people are wanting to go and see. We just toured the East Coast and I’ve never been out that way. Those shows were great. You couldn’t tell which nights were Wednesday nights or Saturdays. They were all really good, and it assured me that I’m doing the best thing for now.”

“This Mess We’re In” hits stores July 15. (He'll also be in town July 23 to sing the national anthem at Great American Ball Park.) McKinley used the same producer (Matt Ross-Spang), studio (Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis) and studio band as on 2020's “Die Midwestern,” so there are similarities that carry through from that album, but also a leap that might be the result of repeating the process in nearly the same way.

“If we got these songs down correctly, it was going to be better, at least in my eyes. I think this album is light years … it’s different from what ‘Die Midwestern’ is. It’s what I wanted to make. I don’t think ‘Die Midwestern’ was rushed in any way, but it was just a new experience. The first time I ever worked with a real producer. My first time in Memphis. I’m just meeting all these people. I think we did it in seven days. This time, I did it in the same place, same musicians, same producer, but I was down there for 14, 15 days, or something like that. It was more comfortable in a lot of ways. We took our time with it more, but it was more comfortable, the whole thing about it,” he said.

McKinley took time for his hometown newspaper to go through “This Mess We’re In” and discuss the album song by song.

“I Don’t Mind”

Q: Why is this the opener? 

A: It shows you what’s to come for the next 40 minutes or whatever. There’s still a little of the “Die Midwestern” sound on there, but there’s also a little of what this album has, which is string-heavy and organ-heavy. It shows where I’m at when I was writing these songs. That was a song I started working on back when I was doing music with Jeremy Pinnell and the Great Depression (the Northern Kentucky musician and the pair’s band). I had never finished it. The timing was just right. It came back in my mind. “Die Midwestern” was figuring out where I’m gonna go and what I’m doing, and “I Don’t Mind” is me just saying where I’m at. Everything will fall into place if I keep trying to do what I’m doing.

“City Lights”

Q: Unlike “I Don’t Mind,'' this sounds like a song about male friendship rather than a romantic relationship. 

A: You nailed it. I finished that song in the studio in Memphis, the lyrics. It’s really about the time I was going through changing the (touring) band, when I was kind of moving on from the same band I’ve had for a while and addressing certain things there. It’s tough when you get to a point where you have to do something and make changes that you wish you didn’t. You’re not wanting to do this stuff. You kind of have to and you hope friendships remain. It was a tough thing to do.

“Back Home”

Q: Is this about Cincinnati? 

A: I think geography-wise, home is a spot of normalcy. Being so far away from who you were growing up. Home being the person I once was, or something like that. Looking at who I am, being in a position that growing up I never thought I would be in, losing so many friends to drug overdoses or suicide. I think it’s a song about just growing up and realizing that life is not what I kind of always thought it would be.

“Stealing Dark from the Night Sky”

Q: This is your first single. Was it clear to you that it should be?  

A: I thought it should be after sitting and listening to it. I think everyone thought that as well. All of our lists were pretty much the same. It’s definitely the sound of this record. It flows through the whole thing. This album in general ... I was listening to a lot of Nick Cave and Nick Drake at this time. I think some Nick Drake snuck in there. It was different from anything I’ve done yet. A lot of this record is different than anything I’ve put out.

“To Die For”

Q: I can’t get my head around this one. I was thinking it’s about the social unrest in the wake of the George Floyd murder. It doesn’t have the feel of intimacy of the first four songs in terms of the lyrical content, but that could be because the musical arrangement is much more rocking. 

A: That song is about the music industry, in a way. There’s definitely some personal things that are in there. Overall it would be just about standing up for things you believe in so heavily. I could see why your thoughts on the song would be there. When people are abusing their positions … I was just writing more from the musical side, after “Die Midwestern'' and that whole process and seeing the music industry stuff. I always knew that there were some gross things that happened in the music industry. Musicians are not the most important piece of the puzzle. You’re doing what everyone else thinks is right. I got lucky to be with Oh Boy, a small label. A lot of bigger labels, PR and booking agents, if you’re not what’s going on at the moment, they try to control it. How easily someone can control someone’s career – it can anger me at times.

“Dancing Days”

Q: You picked the phrase “dancing days” out of the lyrics and made it the title. How does that phrase relate to the message you’re conveying? 

A: I think it’s a relationship song about giving being in a relationship another chance after not doing it for so long and knowing if it’s not with a certain person, then you’re not OK with it happening otherwise. The first line kind of sums the entire song up. If I can never dance with you, I think my dancing days are through.

“This Mess We’re In”

Q: Did you hear it as a piano ballad when you wrote it? 

A: I did not hear it as a piano ballad. I knew it would be a slower ballad. When we were in the studio, we played it a few different ways, and just the way (keyboardist) Rick Steff played it, it worked. I never know how it's gonna turn out. Recording with Matt, who I’ll probably record with until I stop doing this, I just send him demos that I just record usually on my phone, having no idea what he is hearing until I get down there, and this time, everyone in the studio band hadn’t heard the songs yet, so we would listen to them with them that day and just go in and play. It was kind of a fun way to play.

“Rushintherug”

Q: There’s a directness to a lot of your lyrics, and they seem to be true-to-life first-person accounts. In this one, you even talk about writing a song, but then there’s this weird song title. Is that a way to add some vagueness to the meaning of the song, by giving it an esoteric name? 

A: Everything that I write is from my personal experience. It’s my story. I’ve never been a songwriter who can just sit down and write a story of something that hasn’t happened or doesn’t exist. I don’t know if I’ve never been able to do it. I’ve just never tried. I’m comfortable about writing through my experience and that’s what that song is, for sure. The title is just a thing between me and a couple other people. That was the first song that I had written where I knew that I was writing a new record. I will sit and write songs, but when I had written that and “Stealing Dark from the Night Sky,” that’s when it was like, I think I’m writing a new record. That’s also probably my favorite song on the new record, for personal reasons and the sound of it.

“I Wish I” / “Where You Want Me”

Q: These are both country hits. I don’t know if you’re the guy to get them on country radio yourself, but certainly someone cheesier than you could cover them. Is that a market you’re exploring, writing for country hitmakers? 

A: It’s something that we’ve definitely talked about, and if it were to happen, I wouldn’t shut it down. The thing about writing for Nashville, I’ve had conversations with people about that. There’s a formula to some country songs that I think I can follow and possibly do. Not so much with “I Wish I,” but there are people that said similar things as you did about “Where You Want Me.” “I could hear this on country radio,” stuff like that. That song had a much bigger sound than I was used to. I’ve played both of those songs live a little bit prior to recording. I played “Where You Want Me” pretty slow. Everything I play is slow until someone gets a little more creative with it.

“Here’s to the Dying”

Q: There’s a certain hopefulness to this song, despite its themes of death and loss. Are you OK with writing a song that is 100% sad and depressing, or are you obligated to throw a pinch of positivity into the mix if the song is too dark?  

A: I’m pretty fine with it being how it is, and I try to not give it too much thought about that. On a lot of the songs where people have thought they’re really depressing, I don’t think any of them are without hope. I never write a song where I feel it comes across as being defeated completely. I may feel defeated at this moment, but it can get better – that’s the mindset I’m writing from. “Here’s to the Dying” was written about my mother, who passed shortly before “Die Midwestern” came out. And also it was in tribute to everyone who had lost people during these past years. A lot of people had gone through similar things. People are always surprised when they meet me that I’m not some super bummed-out guy. There are times for sure. But I’m always hopeful that every situation I can come out of a little better.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Track-by-track Q&A on Arlo McKinley's 'The Mess We're In,' out July 15