“Vanessa Carlton” (great title) is a driving, emotive, evocative rocker from the Brooklyn-based group Tennis Courts. Comprised of “Patrick + Andrew + friends”, Tennis Courts have really hit the motherlode on this one, but getting there wasn’t an easy journey.
Of the song’s gestation, they say: “It came about very slowly. I had been sitting with this chord progression for months, but I didn’t have any idea what to do with it or how it was going to turn into a song. One day, I left my house and decided I wouldn’t come back until the song was done. After hours of walking around singing various different melodies into my headphones, I finally had something”.
Not especially enamoured with the “driving fast, faces pass…” lyrics, the band endeavoured to change them, but try as they might, they ultimately couldn’t, so they ended up calling it “Vanessa Carlton” (as a nod to her biggest hit), simply because no other words seemed to work in the space.
Perhaps songwriter Pat should’ve walked a bit further that momentous day. Maybe “A Thousand Miles”? Perhaps then something more would’ve come, something they preferred. But to be honest, we love it just the way it is.
With gritty guitars, sing-along melodies, and crisp production, they seem to channel the spirit of hard-rocking – but also extremely accessible – acts like Foo Fighters, The Gaslight Anthem, and Jimmy Eat World, as well as veering into slightly more commercial territory occupied by artists like Goo Goo Dolls and Third Eye Blind.
As the third single from their upcoming EP, Why Would We Fight? (due out on March 27th), the future looks bright for these boys. Take a listen to “Vanessa Carlton” and follow Tennis Courts on the socials below.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
