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Apr 28, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Jen Benard

Canadian indie rocker Brad Turcotte, a.k.a. Brad Sucks, was home-recording and self-releasing projects over the Internet long before the days of Bandcamp or Soundcloud, debuting in 2003 with his first full-length record I Don’t Know What I’m Doing. After netting acclaim for his debut and returning with his crowdfunded records, 2008’s Out of It and 2012’s Guess Who’s a Mess, the project has been largely silent since.

At long last, Brad Sucks returned earlier this month announcing his first album in nearly a decade, A New Low In Hi-Fi, coming June 10th. Brad also shared the first single, “In It To Win It” (featuring Jason Lytle of Grandaddy), and now he’s back with his latest track, “A Little Distance,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“A Little Distance” is a moody electronic track, pulling back from the easygoing rock feel of “In It To Win It” while maintaining a similar meditative bent. Brad describes the single as “A mellow, spooky bummer electronic thing with big sub-bass and pitched down vocals.” That same subdued pulsing bass and pitch-shifted vocals push the song into dark territory, helped along by morbid ruminations like “I’m not tired of living/Living is tired of me.”

The chorus, on its face, seems to offer a bit of hope, insisting that, “I’m not going to notice anymore that you’re never around again/And I’m not going to focus anymore so much on the negative.” Even so, the downcast delivery makes it seem like Brad is trying to convince himself more than anyone else, hoping to put the past behind him at all costs. With his new single, Brad once again skillfully rides the line between bitter melancholy and cautious hope, offering up an excellent piece of introverted DIY electronica in the process.

Brad continues, saying of the track, ”I wrote and recorded ‘A Little Distance’ after a rough breakup and I was just tired of thinking about it. The verses in this track are like these depressing thoughts and then the chorus is me trying to embrace the alienation & transform into a dude who’s 100% over it and moving on. Fake it til you make it style.” Check out the song below and watch for A New Low In Hi-Fi, coming June 10th.