Song Of The Day: PopCulturePirates – “Athlete”

The Brand New Single From The Experimental Solo Project Of Kyoto Lo-Fi’s Nico Caruso Is Full Of ’90s Film Soundtrack Nostalgia.

Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.

PopCulturePirates — “Athlete”
RIYL: ’90s film soundtracks.
What Else You Should Know: If you have heard any of local breakout band Kyoto-Lofi’s music (if you haven’t, what have you been doing?), the voice behind PopCulturePirates might sound like a familiar one. Kyoto Lo-Fi frontman Nico Caruso’s solo project is a slight, experimental deviation from the work of his band’s releases, and unsurprisingly, it’s just as good.

Just over four minutes long, “Athlete” is full of ’90s nostalgia that sounds almost tailor-made for soundtracks to films like The Next Karate Kid. Which is no mistake, Caruso says.

“I was shooting for a bit of a “soft summer sadness” with a hint of entrancing nostalgia,” Caruso says.

Recorded in just one day after navigating through writer’s block,  “Athlete” is diary of sorts for Caruso’s mental health state brought on by self-doubt.

“The lyrics deal with mental health and my own failures I guess, without getting too deep,” he says. “I jammed a demo of it with a looper in my rehearsal space recorded on my phone and forgot about it until a few months later going through my old demos.”

If nothing else, keep the song in mind for that playlist you save for rainy days driving through the city.

Cover photo by Kristen Manza.