Chronic Fatigue doesn’t skate—not well, anyway. Yet their latest music video, a nod to classic skateboarding culture, is central to their second EP, Surrender to Serenity. It’s a curious match: a band steeped in punk’s energy using the aesthetics of a subculture they observe from a distance.
The EP dropped November 15, 2024, blending punk’s urgency with post-punk grooves, metal weight, and hip-hop’s experimental pulse.
“None of us are big-time skaters,” drummer Quinn Letendre admits. “But Liam [Tait], our videographer, grew up filming his buddies at the skate park. He showed me a ton of old skate videos, and I fell in love with the music and the vibes. There’s something about both skateboarding and punk rock—they’re tight-knit communities of outcasts who just want to have fun and make noise.”
For the video accompanying Serenity, the EP’s lead single, the band leaned into this connection. Armed with a camcorder, they followed skaters Dashell Willborn, Frankie DaDawg, and Sean Pearson across Vancouver’s streets, creating a chaotic, nostalgic homage to videos like Baker 3.
“I had a blast making this. Watching them skate and just hanging out at the park was incredible,” Letendre recalls. “I even told them after, ‘Anytime you wanna do this again, I’ll drive you around all day.’ It felt like stepping into a world that runs parallel to ours but still feels familiar.”
The video for Serenity reflects the band’s outsider-yet-admiring relationship with skate culture. It’s not about authenticity in the traditional sense—they don’t claim to be part of the scene—but about recognizing parallels.
“Skating and punk have this history, especially in how both get tied to pop punk and hardcore. But it goes beyond that. It’s about misunderstood people finding their place,” Letendre explains.
Surrender to Serenity is a compact four-track offering, each song reflecting the band’s increasing willingness to experiment. Letendre’s track-by-track breakdown reveals a mix of longstanding ideas and spontaneous changes, pulling from influences as varied as JPEGMAFIA, SPIRITUAL CRAMP, and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.
Serenity:
I wrote the main chorus riff and drum part for this when I was 16 – over ten years ago – and always had it in the back of my mind to turn into a song. This is my favourite drum part I’ve written for a song, and Sean’s guitar part adds so much. Love playing this live so much, it’s much bouncier and groovier than a lot of our stuff, and when you give Sam a chance to rap on a track, he’s gonna tear that shit up no doubt.
Bus Beers:
I wrote the original hook/bass riff/idea for this early on when we started the band but couldn’t figure out how to turn it into a full song for quite a while. Once I cracked the verse idea, I took it to the guys, and we loved playing it right away. I was a little hesitant to make it a goofy song about drinking beers at first, but once we played it live I was proven 100% wrong. People loved this one from the start. We rushed to finish lyrics and get it recorded for the EP because people kept telling us after shows that it was their favourite song and that we needed to record it. It’s still one of the most fun tracks to play, and it always rips live.
Substance Slave:
This was originally much heavier of a groove, much faster, more floor tom on the verses, but I was listening to a lot of Spiritual Cramp when I was trying to sort this one out, and a more post punk-y sound made way more sense. I’m usually allergic to the vocal melody mirroring the guitar riff/chords, but in this one it just works. Adding the breakdown was a late-stage choice to give the song some extra oomph. Can’t take credit for that, much as I might want to. That’s all the boys.
Arc Flash:
What this turned into really caught me by surprise. The demo was initially a much heavier track, very Rage Against the Machine – inspired, but when Sean came back with it, he had added this funky, lighter guitar part onto the chorus that made it way more hip-hoppy and groovy. Sam went off on the lyrics here, and hearing what he came up with really made me want to dive more into hip hop and a more rap-rock type sound on a lot of songs, something we’re leaning into more going forward. This one always gets a lot of love live, the chorus is super fun and the dynamics between the funky verse and super chunky, heavy hook riff is super dope.
“He’d be skating in the gym, and I’d be teaching myself drums on the worship band kit. It’s wild how things come full circle.”
The band itself is made up of members from Vancouver DIY acts Kid Lucifer, The Khans, and Bloom Shack, and their sound carries the rough edges of that scene. The EP, however, feels more collaborative than their previous work, with Patterson’s hip-hop influences weaving into the band’s punk framework in surprising ways.
Though they shy away from calling themselves skaters, Letendre couldn’t resist creating a playlist for the kind of skate-punk soundtrack he’d want to hear—if he were, hypothetically, any good at skating. It’s less definitive and more personal, capturing the mood Chronic Fatigue channels on this release.
Chronic Fatigue isn’t here to tick punk’s boxes, and they’re not trying to. Surrender to Serenity isn’t about tearing up the rulebook; it’s about cruising the edges, finding those weird, unmarked intersections where genres, cultures, and subcultures collide.
Whether they’re hanging around the skate park with a camcorder or tearing through a live set, their vibe comes from the cracks in the pavement where different worlds cross paths.
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