Indie Outfit Ten Kills The Pack Shares The Candid New Single “You’d Like To Believe”

Today, Canadian indie-folk outfit Ten Kills the Pack shares the candid new single “You’d Like to Believe.” Subtle, and slow building, the song addresses the daily struggles with depression and how those suffering often rationalize their state with excuses. It’s a powerful, poignant message as our society barely begins to focus on ways to address mental health issues. Songwriter Sean Sroka brilliant composes a striking string arrangement that swirls to the song’s apex. Listen to “You’d Like to Believe” on all digital retailers (here).

“‘You’d like to believe’ was an evolving song that took on a few different forms through the years,” says Sroka, “until it reached this final arrangement of a slow burning build. It’s a song about depression and how it interacts with your everyday. It lends itself to one’s desire of just speaking out and letting someone know that it’s not any of the excuses you’ve listed, it’s just exactly what it is. Usually, I will collaborate on string section ideas with a musician, however I’m particularly proud of this one as the entire string arrangement top to bottom is written by me and performed verbatim to replace the parts in the demo.”

“You’d Like to Believe” follows the cutting “God, Love, Prescriptions, and Politics” which will appear on the second act of Sroka’s project, Thank You For Trying: ACT II. Sroka recruited Marcus Paquin (The Weather Station, The National) who helped bring this vision to life, serving as the album’s co-producer. Thank You For Trying: ACT II is out March 10th via Nettwerk.

Listen & Share “You’d Like to Believe” Official Visualizer Here:
https://youtu.be/ASW4kNVoLnY

ABOUT TEN KILLS THE PACK:

Canadian Sean Sroka is the kind of self-deprecating singer-songwriter that pens his fears in a way that blends a punk rock ethos with the calm and kindness of folk. The frontman for indie outfit Ten Kills the Pack has become known for his confessional-style lyricism that explores the rough edges of the human condition.

Sroka approaches his life as a musician with a raw passion and sincere attitude that stems from his DIY days cutting his teeth in the music scene of his hometown Toronto or playing in his sludgy punk band around the city. His independence guided the 2019 full-length Force Majeure that zeroed in on the hustle and bustle of city life, a solitary, self-described “guy with guitar” effort recorded in apartments across Toronto. While follow-up Life, Death & Afterwards (2021), expanded his scope to focus on the cerebral and philosophical.

Now, with a more direct and unvarnished backdrop, Sroka scales the next level, developing a pack of homegrown demos into a symphonic whole colored by resonant harmonies, moonstruck keys, and gritty energy that juxtaposes the pretty and intricate details. Ten Kills the Pack unveils the new album Thank You For Trying.

“Segmented into two “acts,” Ten Kills the Pack presents a twelve-song narrative that unpacks the “artist’s journey,” illustrating a message of hope while refusing to shy away from all the bumps and bruises felt along the way. Sroka inhabits a narrator who tells stories that loosely mimic his own experiences. It’s a tactic that calls to mind some of the greatest songwriters like Bob Dylan or Lou Reed, whose mystical musings often blur the lines between fact and fiction. It’s these blurred edges that allow the songs to be so uncomfortably honest, devoted to loneliness, desire, futility, failure, and every bit of hope in between.

TEN KILLS THE PACK IN THE PRESS…

“With quivering, emotive vocals building slowly to an angelic climax, the track is carried by a soundscape of soft, sullen acoustics and rich bed of keyboards, while poetic song writing ties the transportive tale that’s simultaneously intimate and expansive.”
–EARMILK

“…riveting… beautiful and evocative…”
– Variance Magazine

“…poetic observations… poignant songcraft… with Sroka’s vocals gliding above the warm instrumentation. It all builds to a powerful emotive high as the layers of guitar enlace with bursts of trumpets, bringing the track to a climactic finish.”
– Under the Radar

“…a powerful glimpse into the mind of the tortured artist whose thoughts can be shockingly familiar…”
– Let’s Talk About Art Podcast

“…poignant, heartfelt, nostalgic, and relatable to all as the artist puts sparse, but vivid words to a familiar struggle for satisfaction, happiness, and contentment…”
-Atwood Magazine

“Sroka has established Ten Kills the Pack as a leading voice in modern folk music.”
–Exclaim!

“…exquisite… beautifully crafted…”
–Indie88