Kevin Bronson on January 23rd, 2018

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It’s been a long road to arrive at the point where EasyFriend is releasing music. And in the L.A. rockers’ case, “road” is a very real part of the story.

The euphoric, quick-hitting rocker “Create Yourself” is EasyFriend’s first single — born on the bayou, inspired by “the goodness of New Orleans” and, like the rest of the band’s album, incubated by the miles between that city and the Los Angeles scene that Eric Brown and Matt Faulkner love. The music has its roots in Brown’s restlessness. “Three years ago I trekked across the U.S. in a vintage RV, just me and my dog Norman, searching for inspiration and a drastic change in the way I’d been living,” he says. “Well, I found it, but because I was alone it was difficult to capture the story along the way. So we decided to recreate the trip, this time with a camera crew, telling a visual story to accompany the record. We did the journey in a little over three weeks and came back with the magic that will become visuals and album commentary for every song on the record. But [this is] actually where things get really tricky.”

To finance their music/video venture, Brown and Faulkner began what they call a “side hustle”: buying, renovating and renting RVs, like the one Brown has lived in for years. The short version of the story is that business took off — until the cost of maintaining the rentals skyrocketed. They ended up thousands of dollars in debt. Since last fall, they’ve been digging themselves out. “We are back with vengeance, a hell of a lot wiser and making more content than ever,” Brown says, adding that the duo remains intent on financing their own releases.

“Create Yourself” is the first of those creations, from the band’s forthcoming album “Gaunt.”

||| Stream: “Create Yourself”