Premiere: Shannon Clark & the Sugar grapples with change on new song, ‘Like the Stars’

Change comes in waves. Life rises and falls like the tides, constantly washing away the old to make way for the new. It can be difficult to accept such an ephemeral state of existence. But change crashes into us whether we’re ready for it or not. With their new song, Americana family band Shannon Clark & the Sugar advise that change is, perhaps, not so bad after all. “Like the Stars” (pre-save), premiering today, draws comparisons to humanity to the star-strewn skies overhead, shining bright in bursts but ever-changing and elusive.

“I was like the dark, and you were like the stars / And I couldn’t see them apart until you made me,” cracks open Clark in the opening verse. “You were like a spark and I was like the car / That just drove us around and around in circles.”

Originally conceived as “a b-side style tune,” Clark says, the song morphed into something wholly different and cosmic. “We reworked it and recorded it live with minimal overdubs. Once the band felt it, it took on a life of its own,” the singer-guitarist tells B-Sides & Badlands. “It gave us this early ’90s alternative sound a bit, like an old R.E.M song but with a Tom Petty/Fleetwood Mac spin on it. It was much more a folk song in its original draft, and we might have cut this three times total — but the first take just had a certain charisma that we loved.”

The song runs dark and brooding in the verses before ballooning on the chorus, anthem-style. “Where do run to when there’s no place else you can call your own,” sings Clark over palpitating percussion. “Waiting for me to change is like waiting in the rain.”

In this case, it isn’t the ocean washing the slate clean. It’s a downpour without an umbrella in sight. “I think one of the hardest things to do in one’s life is change, especially when you don’t always see it,” continues Clark. “It’s always good once in a while to check yourself and re-evaluate where and who you are. We can always improve as humans, and it’s dangerous when you stop trying to better yourself.”

“Like the Stars” samples the band’s forthcoming album, This Old World, out everywhere September 8.

Listen to “Like the Stars” below.

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