Photo courtesy of Empires Facebook

The sound of wheels hitting the pavement was the inspiration behind Chicago’s hard-charging rock quartet Empires’ latest track “Keep It Steady.” “Seeing a bunch of kids skateboarding in an alley reminded me of when my friends used to go skating and I’d go along for the hang,” singer Sean Van Vleet told Hive. “Even though we were just a few blocks from home, the parking lot seemed like a world apart from the one we thought we were stuck in [in the suburbs].” Vleet’s youthful spirit runs throughout the driving cut and is (nearly) convincing enough to make us dust off our skateboards.

Empires new album Garage Hymns arrives June 12.