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PROVO — Coral Bones, the indie pop brainchild of Provo musician Chris Bennion, will be releasing a new EP on June 20. It will feature a more upbeat tone but still hold within its lyrics topics of great importance to Bennion.
Bennion released his first album, “Youthemism,” in August 2013, which he wrote, produced and recorded entirely himself. The album features an intricate balance of acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as a balance of an upbeat and at times melancholic tone matched with deep introspective lyrics.
The lyrics of music is what drew Bennion to music early on as he grew up in a house where his parents listened to Bob Dylan.
“I started feeling these weird emotions that I had never felt before, and Bob Dylan’s ability to express these emotions was really attractive to me,” Bennion said. “I just really wanted to be able to express how I was feeling in a way that didn’t feel superficial.”
The songs on “Youthemism” were written over an extended time and were mostly about the things he personally was going through. But on the new EP he sought to look at others and what they were going through as inspiration for the work.
Coral Bones
“I focused a lot on my own sorrow and difficulty with being diagnosed with bipolar disorder,” Bennion said. “It’s kind of all my issues with myself, whereas with this new EP I kind of tried to focus on other people more and to kind of look outwardly instead of inwardly.”
This change came about a couple years ago when was admitted into the hospital after a manic episode. While there he saw that focusing on the hard things he was going through was only making matters worse.
“I realized that if I keep focusing on my own troubles, that’s going to get me nowhere,” Bennion said. “But if I want to truly find happiness, then I have to be able to serve other people. I have to kind of strive after giving sympathy instead of getting sympathy.”
I realized that if I keep focusing on my own troubles, that's going to get me nowhere. But if I want to truly find happiness, then I have to be able to serve other people. I have to kind of strive after giving sympathy instead of getting sympathy.
–Chris Bennion
Soon after this, he began working on the project that has now become his new EP. The lyrical content of the album features songs about sexual assault and how few women who are assaulted come forward, a friend in a horrible home situation and how she became a better person as a result of it, and also his personal relationships with others.
The lyrics though can sometimes be overlooked by a casual listener because of the joviality of the music, but this juxtaposition of serious lyrical matter mixed with upbeat music is a theme Bennion has sought scrupulously to obtain.
“It is kind of my way of coping with these issues and kind of letting them go,” Bennion said. “I want to create something that’s happy out of something that is unhappy. I’m trying to acknowledge that there are horrible things and that we can change them.”
The EP is also enhanced with the collaboration of new band member Landon Young.
“It’s made it tons better,” Bennion said when asked how the collaboration changed the new record. “It’s taken me awhile to get out of my comfort zone and to share it around, but it’s been really good for me and it’s been really good for the songs, too.”
The EP will be released on June 20 at Velour Live Music Gallery in Provo at 8 p.m., where there will be a release show. You can find “Youthemism” and its single, “Queensway,” from the EP at bandcamp.com. For more information, go to coralbones.com.
Brock Allen is a Montanan and a communications student at Brigham Young University-Idaho. Formerly a KSL.com intern, he regularly contributes as a music writer. Contact him at olaf.sant6@gmail.com.
