Ferdinand the Bull and the Accidentals Team for “Who’s Got My Good Times?” (premiere)

Since its inception seven years ago, Nick Snyder and Bryce Rabideau’s passion project, Ferdinand the Bull, has become an indie-folk force to be reckoned with. Hailing from Pennsylvania, they’ve become a rising name, powered by Snyder’s sincere songwriting and musical twists and turns afforded by multi-instrumentalist Rabideau’s different arrangements. Painting Over Pictures is the band’s latest full album release, well-regarded for its eclectic, earnest folk. Now, Ferdinand the Bull is still intent on writing and recording new music despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Who’s Got My Good Times?” is assertive, energetic folk-rock that—in its current iteration—was recorded by each artist present in separate locations. Featuring Sav Buist and Katie Larson of Michigan’s Accidentals, its music video is a collage of windows into both the Accidentals’ and Ferdinand the Bull’s separate recording situations.

Snyder reflects, “This is a new song that we are currently in the process of recording. It’s about my frustration of feeling like I had to rely on other people to be able to chase my dreams, and those people not being interested in going on in the journey with me. In both my musical and personal life, I was putting too much stake on those around me and not relying on and trusting myself. So this song is kind of me coming to terms with that and realizing that I have faculty and sway in my own life, and in the aspirations I’m working towards. Because of this, I decided to make the instrumental parts be done mainly on guitar, and make the backbone of the song be vocals, guitar, and drums so I wouldn’t have room to hide behind other instruments outside of myself. It’s kind of a declaration of self. I’m capable, I’m ready, I can do this.”

“Playing together, from three different rooms, was pretty fun! We really had to play off of each other and make changes in our takes based on what we would hear the others do. It was also fun to video ourselves while recording – it’s funny to see how we look and some of the facial/bodily expressions we make while performing that we might not be aware of. We haven’t seen each other in a bit over a month, and we’re all a little performance starved, so working with each other and Sav and Katie (the
Accidentals) gave us the bit of socialization and camaraderie that we’ve been craving.”

Ferdinand the Bull drummer Pete Peters adds, “It was a fun experiment. That was the first time the three of us recorded anything separately to release a song.”