Track-by-Track: Sierra Pilot’s Taylor Leith Sorts Through the ‘Karma’ EP

There’s some good “karma” in the air for Sierra Pilot. The Canadian rock group is thrilled to release their new five-track EP, Karma, today, their most definitive release yet. In just five songs, the trio shows what they’re made of with their ability to shift and meld different genres. They successfully combine metalcore, industrial, alternative, classic grunge, and pop music, displaying their impressive musical versatility. This is an authentic and unapologetic barrage of hard rock music that represents their best effort yet.

Led by lead singer Taylor Leith, the members of Sierra Pilot feel that Karma is the perfect reflection of their sound. It’s how they envisioned the band sounding when they originally formed. The songs are both raw and are truly representative of the live energy that the band brings to every one of their performances. And what’s truly valuable about this stable of musicians is that they represent all that is great about rock n’ roll. The EP features a certain old-school rock n’ roll charm that adds to its authenticity. Karma also features a couple of guest appearances. Bleeker’s Taylor Perkins checks in on “Hollow,” while Clayton Bellamy and Myke Penney from The Jailbirds are featured on “Golden Cage.”

Joining us today is Taylor Leith for a track-by-track rundown of Karma. He shares with us the origins of these songs, their building blocks, and what makes these songs the (so far) definitive statement from Sierra Pilot.

1. “Turpentine”

“‘Turpentine’ was born out of an idea that I had before we released our album Phantom Pains last fall. I brought the idea into a writing session with Clayton Bellamy and our producer Brian Moncarz. Brian is a complete guitar tone wizard, and he got this super belligerent, aggressive tone going, which gave the song a little more edge than before. We ended up scrapping all the lyrics and melodies I had… and I can say I’m really glad we did!

“We got the first line, ‘Rust, stains, I know that you can see, cause it’s all over me’ down on paper, and then the rest just came out naturally. ‘Turpentine’ was also the first track to feature my brother-in-arms Jay Sarrazin on lead guitar, who’s been with the band for just over two years now. He absolutely crushed it, making this song all the more special to me!”

2. “Hollow”

“‘Hollow’ is one of my personal favourites from Karma. It’s also the first one of the batch of songs Brian and I had set out to write, and we were joined by Taylor Perkins from Bleeker. I was just coming out of a huge change in my music career path. I had parted ways with a major influence in my life, and not in the most graceful way. I was coming from a place of angst and anger and all I knew was I needed to write a song to articulate exactly how I was feeling (and still feeling to this day).

“By the end of the session, we had all the guitars down and some badass melodies that I was digging, and they entrusted me to go home and start hammering down on the lyrics. I did have a second verse written for the song but I knew I wanted Taylor Perkins to feature on this track. I’m such a huge fan of his and getting him to sing and write a verse on the track still has my mind blown.”

3. “Me Vs. Me”

“‘Me Vs. Me’ was an interesting one for me. I had to dig deep lyrically. I’d recently become sober, but during the writing of this EP. I was kind of in this weird space where I was sober from the thing I had a problem with but never considered that there was a bigger underlying problem with alcohol… which I was still constantly consuming during the writing process of ‘Me vs. Me.’ The song is about the countless arguments I had with myself about my substance abuse.

“The constantly twisting mind of an addict. Things like, ‘Meh, I’m just hurting myself, so what’s the harm?’ ‘If I feel like shit in the morning, whatever, I’ve done it a thousand times.’ There are also the thoughts of, ‘I’m gonna stop this; I’m not letting this control my life.’ It was a challenging time, to say the least, and I think this song paints an accurate picture of my thoughts when I was in active addiction.

“The song explores conversations you have with yourself as an addict, which was the constant battle I fought with myself while trying to stay sober. This was the first time I wrote openly about my addiction. The song has become my favourite of everything I have ever recorded.”

Sierra Pilot ‘Karma’ album artwork

4. “Karma”

“‘Karma’ started with a chorus idea brought in by Dan Davidson, an amazing writer who also helped write ‘Me Vs. Me.’ When I heard it, I instantly had a connection to the chorus. I can’t take any credit for the chorus, but when I sing it, I mean every word. This whole EP speaks heavily about self-abuse in the form of substance use, and this song just reminded me of all the times I felt completely helpless to my vices. I did not doubt in my mind that this chorus was meant to be sung by me.

“Then Brian went in and did his thing, made the rock aspect huge, and we added this crazy, completely out-of-left-field bridge jam part that’s just super heavy. ‘Karma’ is a great example of what having the right people in your corner sounds like. It’s the perfect title track for the EP.”

5. “Golden Cage”

“‘Golden Cage’ was the first song I wrote with Clayton Bellamy. He had the opening riff ready to go coming into the session. Clayton has thing amazing swagger to his guitar playing and for the life of me, I just couldn’t get the guitar riff right for what felt like forever! But sure enough, I got it down, and we just ran with it! The song captures the essence of feeling trapped in a seemingly ideal existence while yearning for different circumstances. The song was built around a story Clayton Bellamy told us about a refugee he had met who was finally safe in her new life but felt trapped because she was away from her family.

“I feel very fortunate to have Clayton feature and sing the second verse as well as my buddy Myke Penney from The Jailbirds ripping some amazing lead guitar parts. Myke’s one of those players that when you’re watching him, you feel embarrassed to be holding a guitar. He’s just a complete animal. Looking forward to playing this one live one day, it’ll be a complete banger on stage!”