On its debut album Quiet Day, Brooklyn’s Fort Lean trafficked in expertly crafted indie-pop. Of course, not every song the band loved made the album, and this August Fort Lean will be releasing New Hobbies, a tour-only EP that puts these songs in the spotlight. The A.V. Club is premiering “Easily” below, which shows how a track went from the cutting room floor to one of New Hobbies’ highlights. Vocalist-guitarist Keenan Mitchell explains the song’s journey:
This song was one of a few tunes that started around the time we were making this album and had a moment in the demo that none of us could quite get out of our heads. I think anytime someone makes an album there is always a lot of hard choices to make early on when you have to choose which songs will be included. That’s why it was exciting for us when we had the opportunity to pick this one back up and turn it into a fully realized song. Like all the songs on the album, the tour EP gave us all a chance to work on this song as hard as we worked on the other tracks from the LP. At the same time, we had a little more freedom regarding our sonic palette, as there was less of a prerogative to make it “fit” with all the album tracks.
Quiet Day, which will be released on October 2, is available for pre-order through Ooh La La Records and on iTunes, and New Hobbies will be released during the band’s tour this August.