Wonderlick Premieres the Music Video for Their Emotional Single “Eric”

If music is meant to inspire feeling and emotion, then Wonderlick has done a fabulous job of that with their new single “Eric.” Accompanying the song is the official music video, a simple, straightforward performance clip that does its job. You feel every word coming out of Wonderlick singer Tim Quirk’s mouth. Twenty-five years after the formation of the band, “Eric” appears on the band’s upcoming new album Wonderlick Loves You, due out on October 9th. “Eric” conjures a lot of emotion through its lyrics and the way Quirk sings it. It’s bound to hit hard with anyone who has experienced the death of a child who was close to them.

Discussing the song and the inspiration behind it, Tim Quirk comments:

“I was obsessed with this book called Eric as a pre-teen. It’s about a teenager who gets leukemia and dies. It was written by Eric’s mom, Doris Lund. I kind of wished my own mom loved me the way Eric’s did, and I wondered what a book called Tim might include. I didn’t want to die, but I wouldn’t have minded getting an incurable disease and all the ensuing attention.

“Decades later, I’ve come to the understanding that just trying to be like Eric’s mom is a much more worthy goal. We recorded it in Floyd, Virginia, with some old-time musicians we’d just met that day. Something about the banjo and fiddle makes the whole thing extra mournful.”

The duo of Jay Blumenfield and Tim Quirk are back with their seventh studio effort, Wonderlick Loves You. Over the years, we have happily covered the duo multiple times. The founding members of alternative rockers Too Much Joy, the new album feels new and original. There is an undertone of gloom that extends throughout the record, certainly influenced by some of the subject matter, and the circumstances within which it was recorded.

Wonderlick Loves You is a collection of songs primarily about people who feel unloved. It’s not exactly that they are unloved; they are just not feeling it from the people around them. Blumenfield’s mother passed away just two days before Wonderlick was to begin recording this album. Despite his conflicted feelings, he decided to go as planned, with the band having spent months planning the trip and recording session. Some of that woe has certainly found its way onto the record. But it’s also one of the most musically accomplished things the band has ever done.

Their recording engineer, Mike Mitchell, assembled a standout group of local musicians proficient in traditional Appalachian music who helped record the album in the small town of Floyd, Virginia. The influence of a small town and well-accomplished local musicians has found its way onto the record.

This is Wonderlick at their most complete. After 40 years together, they have found yet another way to up the ante and deliver something memorable.

Wonderlick ‘Wonderlick Loves You’ album artwork