The Mascot Theory’s Erik Kjelland can’t help but feel immense gratitude. Still recovering from brain surgery earlier this year, the singer-songwriter feels fortunate to be able to get on stage and perform with the band he’s played with for more than a decade.
“When you go through traumatic things, you come out of it and you want to be better, you want to act better,” Kjelland says. He’s thankful “to still have time here, time with my family, time with my band, playing on a stage and just trying to enjoy life.”
The Madison band is prepping to perform songs from its most ambitious and personal album to date, Cosmic Hit and Run, for its Oct. 5 performance at Atwood Music Hall. The band also features lead guitarist Cory Swadley, bass guitarist Nick Fry, and drummer Paul Metz.
About a year ago, Kjelland started getting severe headaches and episodes of blurry vision. Working at his day job as a graphic designer and video editor, he noticed that computer and TV screens often triggered these issues. Initially, he assumed he just needed glasses.
But the headaches got worse. Last November he sought medical help. While he was waiting to get an MRI, The Mascot Theory convened in January to record songs for the album.
“I was having such horrible headaches and tinnitus that was flaring up,” says Kjelland. “I told the guys I might be sitting down during practice.”
In early February, after a series of scans and procedures, his doctors discovered a rare arteriovenous fistula in his brain. AVF can be fatal and rupture “with the wrong move,” says Kjelland. It was a frightening diagnosis. Doctors thought it had been developing for a decade.
Kjelland was immediately placed on physical activity lockdown and prescribed a pain management regimen. As someone who’d been constantly working, it was challenging sitting idle.
During that anxious three and a half months of waiting for the procedure, he got into the studio whenever he felt well enough to work on the songs. Sometimes he’d be on his couch working on his laptop on the music, and other times he’d have his head buried in a pillow to ease the pain while a band member recorded vocals.
Kjelland felt an urgency to record before the procedure, unsure if these would be his final songs.
These included songs written about his grief as he watched his father’s health deteriorate between 2018 and 2020 and his subsequent death. They felt doubly potent as he grappled with his own mortality.
On the album’s final song, “Still Here,” he sings about how someone moves forward when a loved one is gone.
“I was singing these lyrics and not knowing what my future was going to be, and that was really hard,” Kjelland says. “It was the hardest thing I had to sing on the entire album.”
He ended up changing the lyrics to be more hopeful, with the line “I’m still here/I’m still breathing.” It was something he needed to express at a point where he didn’t know how much time he had, but wanted to make the most of it.
Fortunately, the procedure on his brain was successful. While Kjelland still has headaches, they’re not as strong. His recovery is an ongoing process.
He recalls feeling a wave of emotions listening to the final mix of the album at 2 a.m. while recovering in the hospital — the same hospital where his father received treatment. Kjelland hopes to replicate that feeling as much as he can during the band’s live show.
Cosmic Hit and Run follows the band’s 2024 album Every Sign of Life. This time Kjelland’s autobiographically inspired lyrics frame tragedy and grief through an otherworldly lens. The songs examine how life can shift in an instant and ask such existential questions as “What are we doing here?” and “How do we fit in this universe?”
Kjelland says the band was supportive of his song ideas and wanted to help him create a bold sounding album. After their “dream recording experience” working with veteran producer Terry Manning at El Paso, Texas-based Sonic Ranch Studio on Every Sign of Life, the band decided to record the album themselves in their own studios. That way they could take their time and be spontaneous and in the moment.
The band “put some surprises in there,” Kjelland says. While the band is known for its Americana sound, one song, “Wide Awake” has a disco-like beat.
“It’s a real blessing as a songwriter to have a bunch of guys that are willing to try anything…. And even if it is some big extreme switch in direction, it’s just so much fun and it keeps it fresh for us.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source isthmus.com ’
