B-Side Guys

Buffalo’s indie pop alchemist Mike Santillo has spent enough time in recording studios to know when to let a song breathe. Under his new moniker Matches Laces, he’s crafted “One Day I’ll Be Lying Dead,” a deceptively buoyant meditation on mortality that feels less like a funeral dirge and more like a gentle reminder to keep living.

After steering indie rock outfit The Tins through a decade of sonic exploration, Santillo’s solo venture strips away the traditional band dynamics in favor of a more intimate laboratory approach. The track marries moody sci-fi synthesizers with earthbound acoustic guitar, while retro drum machines provide a steady heartbeat beneath field recordings that root the composition in tangible reality.

The song’s title might suggest a heavy-handed descent into existential dread, but Santillo’s deft touch transforms potential darkness into something remarkably warm and affirming. As co-owner of Buffalo’s Mammoth Recording Studio, he’s developed an ear for layering that serves this material particularly well. Vocal harmonies stack like gentle reassurances, each one reinforcing the song’s core message about embracing life’s finite nature.

What’s striking about “One Day I’ll Be Lying Dead” is how it sidesteps the well-worn tropes of mortality-focused songwriting. There’s no melodrama here, no grandiose statements about the human condition – just honest reflection wrapped in carefully constructed pop sensibilities. The result feels like overhearing someone’s personal mantra about choosing love over anxiety, experience over fear.

The track appears on Matches Laces’ self-titled debut EP, where it sits among eight other vignettes exploring everything from heartbreak to simple moments of existing. The project’s name, borrowed from a street vendor’s cry in the horror anthology “From Beyond the Grave,” perfectly captures Santillo’s approach to songwriting – finding profound meaning in life’s small, essential details.

Recording in his own studio has allowed Santillo to capture inspiration as it strikes, and this spontaneity shines through in the finished product. Rather than polishing away the human elements, he’s preserved the immediacy of discovery, letting the song unfold like a late-night conversation with a close friend about life’s biggest questions.

While death-contemplating pop songs might sound like well-trodden territory, Santillo has managed to carve out his own distinct corner of this philosophical landscape. “One Day I’ll Be Lying Dead” doesn’t pretend to have new answers – it simply presents mortality as another thread in life’s rich tapestry, all while reminding us there’s still plenty of dancing to be done.

This track establishes Matches Laces as a project worth following, proving that sometimes the most profound statements come wrapped in the simplest packages. Like its creator’s studio philosophy, it doesn’t overstay its welcome – it says what it needs to say, then leaves us to ponder its echoes in our own time.