“Sun Farm” is the first song we’ve heard from Chase Waller, the 26-year-old songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind the name El Rocko, since March 2020, right before COVID came sweeping in. During the pandemic, Waller got married, bought a farmhouse, and put his nose to the grindstone to complete his debut EP, Daydreaming. Less synthesized and more earthy than the first few singles of his career, Daydreaming reflects Waller’s life in quarantine, learning to live in close quarters with another person, and taming a plot of land left to wild in the North Georgia countryside. 
 
As Waller puts it, “For me, the most overwhelming part was the property: an overgrown garden, a chicken coop laden with scraps of metal, flower beds overgrown with weeds. I was so frustrated by the looming work that I often felt paralyzed and would walk around and watch. In observing the little ecosystem around the house, I experienced the order and chaos of nature that ensued. Some animals killed each other, some plants killed each other, some animals helped plants grow, some plants helped animals grow, etc. I thought about how, at our best, we could be a guiding hand to the chaos and order of nature. And so, with my wife leading the way (because I had no clue what I was doing), we started to make a garden.”
 
Snippets of this story and still frames of life in the country are woven into the concise three minutes that make up “Sun Farm.” It is the first track off El Rocko’s new EP, which embraces the pastoral imagery and blossoming love story that has characterized Waller’s life over the last 2 years. 

Daydreaming is out May 27, via Yellow Racket Records.

Daydreaming

Sun Farm

El Rocko’s debut track, “Half the Day,” contemplates the demise of a relationship that disintegrates in a matter of hours. “I was thinking about all the relationships I have been in that seemed to end abruptly,” Waller stated. “Even if it had been building up under the surface for months, I often felt like it took less than a day for everything to fall apart.” Waller’s delicate, carefree delivery subtly disguises the turmoil of a relationship crashing and burning before our very eyes, as it were, in only 3 minutes and 48 seconds. The song closes with the image of two people in isolation, waiting for the other one to reach out, but neither willing to be the first to break the silence. 

"Half the Day"
Getting famous with your eyes closed 
Why you hate this nobody knows 

It took you half the day 
You’re hoping that she’ll stay with you 
But I’m not so sure of it 
Let me know how it goes 

Saw you waiting with your eyes closed 
Where she’s headed nobody knows 

It took you half the day 
She says she will not stay with you 
But I’m not so sure of it 
Let me know how it goes 

Now she’s looking at a painting 
And she’s wondering why you’re waiting 

It took her half the day 
To slip out and sneak away from you 
But she’s not so sure of it 
She’ll let you know how it goes

Half the Day

Half The Day

Promises

Going For A Walk

Heavily influenced by 90s alt-rock and shoegaze, El Rocko’s music combines ragged guitars and mellow vocals with simple, honest lyrics to produce dreamy and wide-ranging songs, flitting between simple folk music and lush dream pop. Drawing inspiration from bands like Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Radiohead, and Duster, El Rocko’s songs are intimate, confessional, and always a little off-center.

El Rocko

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