Milwaukee-based alternative outfit Gold Steps is known for routinely releasing infectiously catchy and oft-uptempo material that typically touches on themes related to personal relationships and internal emotions. However, with “the turmoil [they] feel with the current state of the world,” the band has broken format to release a brand new—and decidedly more pointed and aggressive—single that tackles some of the frustration the band feels with contemporary existence in these ever-worsening times.
“Make It Make Sense” is the third single Gold Steps has put out this year. Unlike its predecessors (the wistful “Mirrored Souls” and vulnerable and introspective “Jealousy”), today’s new track confronts the growing feelings of exasperation, dissatisfaction, and helplessness the band—and so many others out there—feel as a result of political, economic, and environmental collapse.
“We’ve never purposely made a track that could be taken as political, but as you get older, you realize everything is political,” Gold Steps vocalist Betty Mauritz says in a press release. “While those in power and with vast amounts of wealth pad their portfolios, abuse their positions, and commit crimes without accountability, everyday Americans feel the effects of them treating our government and economy as a playground. We’re more divided than ever due to propaganda and most media kowtowing to the administration. And honestly, we’re sick of it. So we wrote a song about it.”
“Make It Make Sense” further hammers its point home with an accompanying video directed by frequent visual collaborator Eddie Curran that displays Mauritz and her band mates on the brink of breakdown. Despite its uncharacteristically weighty subject matter, the song somehow manages to tap into the identifiable sense of anger related to getting to this low point in American/human history and the uncertain path out of the darkness while also maintaining Gold Steps’ trademark pop-forward, and hook-laden sound.
Stream and/or watch the video for “Make It Make Sense” now, then catch Gold Steps—fresh off their Summerfest appearance in support of All Time Low and Kenny Hoopla—at Saturday’s Les Paul Battle Of The Bands at Vivarium and at X-Ray Arcade on Sunday, July 26.