There’s a point in “Too Far” where the thought turns on itself — say what you mean, deal with what it breaks. That tension sits at the center of Bummer Camp’s latest single, released as they line up their sophomore album “Fake My Death,” due May 8 via Trash Casual Records.
The Queens based project started as something much smaller. Eli Frank, also of Teenage Halloween, built Bummer Camp alone during the pandemic, working through isolation with a loop station. “It helped me feel like I could build something while I was alone and feel productive,” he says. That structure stuck longer than expected, even as the project grew. “What’s funny is Bummer Camp is still sorta like that. I write all my songs alone on my acoustic guitar but it’s for a full band.”
The shift wasn’t just logistical. Writing for other people changed the intent. “That’s where the change ultimately came from, a desire to write songs for a group and not just play by myself. You’re also extremely limited by a loop and I wanted to play more with time signatures as well as the feel of a full band.”
The control didn’t disappear with the expansion. “I still, as funny as it might sound to say, have creative control over these songs… this is my baby. I’m already in another band that has a democratic creative process and I needed something that I could fully stand behind.”
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That tension — between isolation and collaboration, control and openness — carries into how the songs take shape now. The method hasn’t been replaced so much as redirected. “The songs all come together in a similar way as it did when I was doing the solo loop thing. The main difference is rather than building beats on my loop station alone, I’m writing songs on my acoustic guitar alone.” The early stages stay private, deliberately. “I do my best writing on my own. It feels less judgey and I can do more stream of consciousness type stuff, singing along to riffs in a made up language.”
Those sketches don’t always get cleaned up. “After I come up with a loose idea and an arrangement I’ll put words to the nonsense. Sometimes the nonsense becomes the actual words.” Only later does the band step in to test the structure. “Then after all is said and done I’ll play the songs with my drummer, previously Peter Gargano who is my bandmate in Teenage Halloween, and current drummer Victoria Seagriff who is an absolute killer of percussion. It helps to fully realize the song and see where the composition weaknesses are.”
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“Too Far” comes from an earlier batch of writing, but it still tracks closely with where Frank’s head is at. “So these songs were actually written a couple years ago, and I feel like my mental state was a bit different to ‘now’. Regardless it’s still somewhat relevant to my frame of thought and I think will unfortunately apply for the entirety of my life.”
The song circles a familiar problem and pushes it further than comfort allows. “The song talks about speaking your truth and how it often comes back to hurt you even when you are trying to help or just be honest. Honesty is not always appreciated, it rarely is actually.” The expectation of honesty isn’t the same as wanting to hear it. “Even when people want you to tell them what you actually think, most of the time they just want a pat on the back.”
That gap — between what’s asked for and what’s actually tolerated — is where “Too Far” sits. “It can hurt to hear what someone actually thinks, especially a close friend, but I’ve always thought lying does more damage than good and you can help someone more by saying your actual opinion.” The song leans into the worst-case outcome of that stance. “’Too far’ takes it to the extreme and echoes my worries of ending up alone, whether it’s friends or romance. That fear will always stay with me, and with most people.”
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Frank avoids locking those ideas into a single narrative. “I try to avoid writing in a super specific way and stay more in the ‘how do people relate to me’ sorta vibe. I feel like art ultimately hits you most when you can feel it yourself. I want to reach people and hopefully through similarities we can all realize we’re not so different.”
“Too Far” follows the earlier single “One Bullet,” which arrived with a video created by longtime collaborator Preston Spurlock. Both tracks point toward “Fake My Death,” a record that pushes further past the lo-fi origins of Bummer Camp’s early releases and into the scope of a full band that’s been playing together long enough to test those ideas in a room.
Bummer Camp play a single release show at Gold Sounds in New York City on April 3. “Fake My Death” lands May 8 on Trash Casual Records.
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