After the band took a hiatus while Mollenkopf finished grad school, this spring sees First Responder return with Courage, their debut full-length album. With new bassist Collin Geddis joining Cameron Carr (guitar) and Zayn Dweik (drums), the record develops what came before to find the perfect balance between intimacy and urgency. Mollenkopf’s soprano vocals are paired with instrumentation both mellow and driving, sometimes shifting from hesitant to jubilant and back again within the same song.

There’s a juxtaposition at the heart of the album’s themes too, Mollenkopf vacillating between uncertainty and empowerment in a quest for a fuller understanding of herself. There’s a backward-looking element to the lyrics but only in service of what is to come, as though by delving into the murky waters of the past one might be able clear the waters of the future to find purpose and meaning.

Today we’re delighted to share the third single, ‘Coney Island’. The song is positioned on the soft end of the First Responder spectrum and has something of a tidal rhythm, ebbing and flowing but always inching forwards. The lyrics are an ode to finding strength within yourself, and true to this idea the track gathers in intensity as it progresses, building step by step into something like conviction. There might not be any clear understanding in how or why we find the bravery to persevere, but there is belief in the fact that we can if only we persist.

Already know where I’m gonna go
When I die

I see it in my head
See it in my head
See it in my head each
night

Don’t know where, know where
This courage came from
Nowhere, Nowhere

Courage is out on the 13th March and you can pre-order it from the First Responder Bandcamp page.

Photos by Julia Jeffers

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“Saying goodnight has never been so hard
when you’re the sealant sealing water towers
now you’re gone and water starts it’s seepin’
wetting streets sending windshields swayin’
filling garden beds and gutters
maybe tomorrow there’ll be flowers”

‘Rental Textbook’ is a lean indie pop song, the vocals again taking centre stage as Mollenkopf sings “I’m a rental textbook, and I was due last week”, before ‘Heavy Snow’ with its prominent bass line and constantly mashed background guitar. Finale ‘Tea Leaves’ is a fuzzy indie rocker, Mollenkopf”s voice quivering on a slightly higher plane then everything else.

Perhaps due to its origins as a solo bedroom work, the EP has a much stronger dark and emotional core than many indie rock records (see for example on ‘Rental Textbook’ – “And you don’t know a thing about me / a girl of clay that you can tweak / a vacant space for you to occupy / believing I am yours to keep”). The strength of First Responder as a band lies in how they elevate these themes rather than smother them. As Mollenkopf explained to The Grey Estates, “With the accompaniment of noise guitar and a full band the songs become less like diary entries, and more like lifelike dreams or visions of the past. Discussions of past abuse are tinged with hope, clarity found in retrospect, and can be summarized with the line ‘…maybe tomorrow there’ll be flowers’.”

In My Dreams My Windows Faced West is due for release on the 16th of December. Keep an eye on the First Responder Bandcamp page to grab it when it comes out.

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