In writing “Aint That Cool,” My Kid Brother singer and guitarist Christian Neonakis found himself listening to a lot of Sam Cooke, The Supremes, The Temptations and other gems from the Motown era. “I wanted to try to write a song that carried that same feel,” says Neonakis of the song off the band’s self-titled debut (Fearless Records). “Not wanting it to be a love song, I wrote the lyrics about my relationship with creating music.”
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Unlike some of the Virginia-bred band’s other songs, “Aint That Cool” came together quickly and kept to its structure when Neonakis first wrote it nearly four years ago.
Seeped in soulful riffs, “Aint That Cool” is an infectious tale of the love-hate world of making music, and relationship woes in its revelatory lyrics I don’t know, where this career is gonna go, and if it’s nearly just a show / But still I feel that I’m joke, sad and weird yes I’m joke.
Described by Neonakis as a “a carefully curated soundtrack for coercing your friends into joining a psychedelic-fueled cult,” My Kid Brother is the band’s experimental journey in psych-rock, soul, blues and other exploratory capsules of sound.
In the midst of quarantine, “Aint That Cool” was filmed and recorded live by the band, consisting of Neonakis, Piano Whitman on synth and piano, bassist Richard Smith, guitarist Dylan Savopoulos, and drummer Sam Athanas, who were all craving studio time again.
“We all had a lot of fun recording this song live in the studio,” says Neonakis. “After being in quarantine for so long, it was great to go out and record at a studio again. We had decided that we didn’t want it to look like we were recording in a studio, so we came up with the idea of designing the studio to look like someone’s room. Piano [Whitman] took control of getting the film crew, props, and aesthetic to transform the studio.”
In breaking down “Aint That Cool,” Neonakis was admittedly obsessed with Jackie Wilson’s 1967 sold hit “Higher and Higher” and wanted to write something in that style when pulling together “Aint That Cool.”
“It was difficult,” he says, “I didn’t like anything that I was making, so then I wrote a song about how frustrated I was with trying to write a song.”
