Photo courtesy of The Delta Saints

On the Delta Saints‘ harmonica-imbued new single “Death Letter Jubilee,” Schadenfreude has never sounded so funky. Early in the song, vocalist-Dobroist Ben Ringel exclaims, “One day I’m gonna stand over your grave and I’m gonna dance and I’m gonna sing!” For the Nashville group, who calls their ramshackle brand of revelry “bourbon-fueled bayou rock,” the joy in the song, which comes off the album also titled Death Letter Jubilee, is real. “It’s kind of a weird thought, but we all have had it about someone, and when that feeling overtakes your entire being, it will eventually lead to your own end in some ways,” Ringel explains, later saying the feel Delta Saints were going for was that of a “funeral parade.” “I really like songs that evoke a certain emotion because of the music, but when you listen to the lyrics, you get an entirely different story. That’s what we tried to do on this song, the music is jubilant, and the words are dark. It was a fun story to tell.”

Part of the reason the song sounds so lively is the fact that the group recorded it live, rather than going piece by piece. Ringel estimates “Death Letter Jubilee” took about five or six takes, including the blazing harmonica lines. “That way we could take cues from one another, and it just felt really natural,” the singer says. “If there were little mistakes that we couldn’t live with, we’d do a small punch in on the track, but for the most part, it was all done live.” Moreover, Ringel says the sound of the single is a good representation of the liveliness on the rest of the album. “We’ve kind of come into our own sound over the past couple of years, and what we’ve really been looking for is this dark New Orleans rock-and-roll kind of thing,” he says. “We like to get loud and dance, and that’s what Death Letter Jubilee is about.”

Death Letter Jubilee is out January 15. Stream the title track below: