Emily & The Complexes began on the road. While his peers moved into dorm rooms and attended lectures, singer/songwriter Tyler Verhagen took to the off-ramps, truck stops, and 24-hour diners that are the unseen epicenters of a hitch-hiking sub-culture. For the better part of two years, Verhagen criss-crossed the country with nothing but a backpack and an acoustic guitar. He caught rides in semis, slept on beaches, busked on the streets, and got kicked out of San Diego. It was here on the road that he wrote the songs that would become Emily & The Complexes first album, Styrofoam Plate Blues (2012). When passing through Ohio he would stay with future bandmates Jordan Finke, Tom Konitzer, and Brett Gregory who were all attending classes at OSU.
Jersey City Blues is the first track. Verhagen had this to say on American Songwriter, ‘ I got the idea to write the song about a year ago after Tom, our drummer, told me about an article he read about how a New Jersey bar switched out scotch for rubbing alcohol with caramel coloring in it, says Verhagen. I thought it was pretty funny in sort of a dark way, and as far as Im concerned that might be the best basis for a song. I guess I strive to put things into songs that on first listen might feel weird and maybe even out of place, but upon further thought you find yourself smirking and chuckling to yourself.
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Emily & The Complexes are here
