{"id":6681,"date":"2025-02-10T13:25:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T19:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/?p=6681"},"modified":"2025-02-11T13:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:50:15","slug":"frogs-new-album-is-a-love-letter-to-whoever-is-listening-with-1000-variations-of-the-same-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/2025\/02\/10\/frogs-new-album-is-a-love-letter-to-whoever-is-listening-with-1000-variations-of-the-same-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Frog\u2019s New Album is a Love Letter to Whoever is Listening, with 1000 Variations of the Same Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On Valentine\u2019s Day, for those who celebrate and those who don\u2019t, this one shouldn\u2019t feel so ordinary: Frog, the \u201creal cool guys from NY\u201d<\/a> part-cult indie folk band, is back with their sixth studio album on Feb. 14, titled \u201c1000 Variations of the Same Song.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A band who, once you hear, you will never quit humming for yourself or the line in front of you in grocery stores; at its core, the music is all about love, its release date symbolically speaking in tandem with the leading singles already released, \u201cMIXTAPE LINER NOTES VAR. VII,\u201d \u201cJUST USE YR HIPS VAR. VI\u201d and “HOUSEBROKEN VAR. IV.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat down with Daniel Bateman, a.k.a. Frog, on Monday, Jan. 27, to hear about the album. Before the new album was announced, I emailed the band, expressing my wish to speak with my favorite band in the world. Bateman was more than willing to make this happen, breaking the news of this new project coming soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bateman joined a band at 15. \u201cI played with other people, but that was the first time I was in a band with my friends in high school,\u201d he tells me. The band played a lot of rock music; mostly covers in the beginning. With musical influence from The Police and a group of friends who were all really into Nirvana, those jumpy, loud songs sourced the early years of playing music for people, being in a garage, creating sound and art and being seen by peers, trying new things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making music became \u201cwhatever was going through my mind at the time\u2026which is what it continues to be,\u201d Bateman tells me. The moment he had written a song, the band realized it was \u201ccooler to do your own stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music was always about \u201chaving a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Frog prepares to release their sixth album, I had to ask what it means for Bateman to head down new paths and experiment with new sounds, for even as different and exciting the first two singles have been, to any listener, they are revered and received, undeniably, as Frog songs. To which Bateman tells me, \u201cI just try to get better at making records every time. I think I get better at it every time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frog\u2019s single \u201cMIXTAPE LINER NOTES\u2028VAR. VII\u201d is written from the perspective of somebody making a mixtape for someone. The vivid lyricism on the track brings to life this story and perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBack in the day, if you wanted to show someone music, you made a mixtape for them,\u201d says Bateman. Then, \u201cyou have to make the art and you have to color it in. That was one of the ways you showed someone how you felt for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe funny thing is maybe kids don’t know what a mixtape is in this context,\u201d he said. We agreed that making a Spotify playlist for someone was the digital version and I wondered how Bateman gets his music today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnything.\u201d Getting, buying, or streaming music is \u201cabout ease of use for me. I just want to be able to find something that I am thinking about really quickly.\u201d The way people get their music today is a testament to how we can try new things. An ever-evolving world of alternatives and avenues to music gets us to today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaking mixtapes for people was good because you had to show who you were. The order was really important.\u201d He explains the memory of making mixtapes for someone by saying you couldn\u2019t put the best song first, it couldn’t be the first track. In that case, \u201cyou’re giving up all your game right away, you gotta hide it away, so that when you find it it\u2019s like crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bateman describes this as \u201cmaking art with other art,\u201d the mixtape as a gift, a way to tell people how you feel about them. In \u201cMIXTAPE LINER NOTES VAR. VII\u201d the narrator\u2019s mixtape features \u201cHelena\u201d by My Chemical Romance, followed by Big Star\u2019s \u201cThirteen.\u201d All on the same tape as two tracks by The National. These are tracks some would certainly consider genre-differing and lyrically contrasting; however, they tell a story and are an art form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe’ll throw it on in the car\/and run her hands through her hair\/track one side A Helena by MCR\/take it down a touch or two Thirteen by Big Star.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of ordering tracks led our conversation into the tracklist of \u201c1000 Variations of the Same Song.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Variations is just a bunch of ideas that I\u2019m exploring\u2026and I’m doing different little runs at them\u2026each song is just a mirror of the song before.\u201d Bateman prefaces, though, that they all have a different feeling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bateman describes putting together this record as freeing, with tracks melting into one another, pieces seeping into the following variation (in this case a track). \u201cIt allows you to not have to worry about one form because you have a different one you\u2019re talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cForm is the most interesting and most important aspect of any art.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought that was a really awesome thing to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frog got their name from a 1980s Casio 101, which featured a preset sound of a frog, seemingly \u201cunusable\u201d in any song. Bateman referred to it as  \u201chorrible and hilarious,\u201d<\/a> hence being compared to frog noises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Bateman purchased a different, personal Casio from \u201cthis guy, like a crust punk,\u201d offering the Casio for only five dollars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can’t justify it, it isn’t rational\/I get high and I cry it over broken Casios\/I could\u2019ve tried to hide it, it’s in the past and all\/In case I’m wrong these next two songs are by The National\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I was like hell yeah. […] I got five dollars, gave it to him, and I’ve used it ever since. It\u2019s a great machine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a lot of the early parts of this album, \u201cI was doing a lot of the music on the broken keyboard, so the voicings aren’t your choice because only some of the keys work, and you can go different placings because you’re not able to use it like you want to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This broken casio is exactly what makes the sound so unique. For those undesired limitations, there are new things to try, as Bateman has always done and is excited to continue to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou gotta try to have fun doing something new.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1000 is a good, round number, but it does take some time to reach. Bateman is more than serious about this large number of variations. \u201cThey don’t know what they\u2019re dealing with\u2026they don’t know,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The songs are a love letter and an ode to the person listening: \u201cEvery aspect of art can be an invitation,\u201d that\u2019s what makes it so interesting. There is no better word than \u201cinvitation\u201d to describe leaning into Frog\u2019s collection and the unbelievably loyal companionship it offers to me and its listeners. The songs are my friends, I\u2019ve always seen friends and people from the past come out so clearly in these songs. \u201c1000 Variations of the Same Song\u201d is going to be the soundtrack to my 2025, and it should be yours too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be the best Valentine\u2019s Day yet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Go see Frog on tour this Spring!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Valentine\u2019s Day, for those who celebrate and those who don\u2019t, this one shouldn\u2019t feel so ordinary: Frog, the \u201creal cool guys from NY\u201d part-cult indie folk band, is back with their sixth studio album on Feb. 14, titled \u201c1000 Variations of the Same Song.\u201d\u00a0 A band who, once you hear, you will never quit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1806,"featured_media":6686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/files\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-10-at-12.33.21-PM.png?fit=1314%2C1338&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa7fJU-1JL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6681"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6692,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6681\/revisions\/6692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/socc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}