Pierce Fulton is finally starting to feel again.
Two months ago, he broke four ribs rib and punctured his lung in a rope swing accident while trying to relax in Canada. He was lucky. He could have broken his back, but he walked away from surgery with intense pain and numbness in his side. The nerve damage has abated, but those aren't the feelings he's focused on.
“I haven't been nervous about things in a long time, and whether it's good or bad, at least I'm feeling something,” Fulton says. “I have no idea how this EP is going to go, and it's my favorite music I've ever made – ever. It's exciting. It could totally destroy my career or it could go really well, and I'm excited for either or.”
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The EP in question is called Borrowed Lives, and it features four tracks Fulton thought would never see the light of day. They toe the line between alternative indie rock and dance pop. They don't feature big shiny drops like “Kuaga,” but they do play in the 128-bpm range as Fulton experiments with what defines "dance music."
“I'm not trying to push myself into a new territory or step far away from where I've been,” Fulton says, “I'm just trying to make music that I'm happy with that sounds fun.”
First single “Make Me Blue” seems to be a good step forward, although it's actually Fulton's least favorite of the four. He was forced to record the second verse with his ribs broken. In fact, most of the EP was made from rough first takes, since his injury left him unable to do much else, but the producer thinks that may have ended up being all the better.
“I've realized more and more that usually the first take of anything is most likely the best,” he says. “When you overthink things, revise them a lot, sometimes it hurts you in the end.”
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For his next single, Fulton chose the title track, “Borrowed Live,” featuring his buddy NVDES. It's a playful tune that tells the tale of a man who wakes up bored with his average life. He realizes he can't change his life now, but if he can't escape his own fish bowl existence, he might as well free his pet fish into the ocean, and that's just what he does.
It's a track made completely on physical instruments, mostly guitars and synths and a four-string dulcimer guitar.
“It came together in two hours,” Fulton says. “It's a really fun song. Actually, it's my favorite song I've ever made.”
Fulton hopes his audience accepts his new direction, and that he can eventually put together a proper live performance to showcase the sound. Borrowed Lives comes out Friday, July 22.