Daffy Duck from Coaster by Massage

No song better embodies Massage’s evolution than “Daffy Duck,” the first single off Coaster. It started as a wordless demo: just Romano’s Rickenbacker, his mumbled melody and a sampled snare. Ferrer wrote lyrics about that shit-or-get-off-the-pot moment all thirtysomething relationships eventually reach, then recorded her plaintive vocals late one night at home.

The track didn’t really take off, however, until the band assembled in the tiny rehearsal-space studio they shared with producer-composer Andrew Brassell (Susanna Hoffs) and started layering on hook after hook: pulsing synth, monumental bass, metallic guitar, vaporous keys and Ferrer’s pitched-up, Cyndi Lauper yelps.

The whole painstaking process took two years from start to finish, but it produced something both immediate and idiosyncratic: a maximalist anthem that evokes Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” New Order’s Technique, Orange Juice’s Glasgow School and even Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” … while still sounding like only Massage could have made it.

“‘Daffy Duck’ is probably the closest we’ll ever get to writing a ‘banger’,” Romano says. “But it’s a very us kind of banger — you don’t know whether to dance or cry.”

A music video stitched together by Rager from astronomical footage shot in 1928 will be released on July 29 to accompany the single and announce the LP.

Massage is:

Alex Naidus
Andrew Romano
Gabi Ferrer
Natalie de Almeida
David Rager

massagetheband@gmail.com

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