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Jun 22, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Kevin Condon

Brooklyn-based band Big Bliss is the indie rock project of brothers Cory and Tim Race, along with bandmate Wallace May. Together, the trio debuted in 2018 with their full-length record At Middle Distance, introducing their marriage of tense post punk grooves, noisy indie guitars, and sharp songwriting. The band have spent this year teasing their sophomore album, Vital Return, out August 18th via Good Eye Records. Today, they’re back with another single from the album, “Tell Me When You’re Ready,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Tell Me When You’re Ready” is a supremely energetic effort, with Tim delivering a passionate vocal performance atop nervy guitars and feverish drumming. The wiry textures bring out the band’s post punk influences, adding darker shades to the instrumental in contrast to the track’s catchy chorus. Meanwhile, Tim’s lyrics unpack the early days of addiction recovery, reflecting on feelings of denial, fear, and confusion: “I don’t want to say it / A disease, and it’s latent / In me it’s been waiting / But I just need some more time / I can’t see the light / It is blurred, it is mired / I’m nauseous and I’m scared / And I know why I’m tired / Catch myself on the wall / Oblivion in the tiles / Dead drunk and alone / Warm glow in my spine, warm glow.”

Tim says of the track, “TMWYR is another in a series of songs on the record that deal with addiction and early sobriety. This one in particular occurs in the transition; it’s about my denial, fear, confusion, and anger kicked up by the growing realization that I was in trouble and sick. The jig was up. An admission of defeat is difficult enough to broach with another human being, but it is often even harder to broach with oneself. People die in that gap. I was only able to avail myself because of the people who caught me when I finally loosened my grip.

I did have a name for it and it scared me.

I’ve wondered what else I missed because I was too afraid to be honest and to face myself. My example is addiction, but ultimately TMWYR is about the experience of confronting fear and letting a desperate search for ‘what’s missing’ end.”

Check out the song below. Vital Return is out everywhere on August 18th via Good Eye Records.