Every Bug
Kahan Ever Wrote

Kahan named his debut after the anxious, buzzing quality of his own thoughts - the bugs were always inside his head first.

The quiet, outdoor imagery of the EP - summer evenings, the natural world - plants the seeds of the bug motif before it becomes explicit.

"The last of the bugs / They leave the village and they fly south." The line that started everything. Kahan held onto this phrase in private for three years before it became the secret name for the next album's rollout.

The line remained in the expanded edition. More people heard it. Nobody knew yet what it would become.

A mysterious account appears. One clip. Caption: "you weren't supposed to find this... only the last of the bugs ever do." The snippet turned out to be "End of August." The rollout had begun.

The album opens with literal bug-chirp sounds blending into piano. The lyric: "Ending of August, the bugs are just starting to die." A direct continuation of where Stick Season left off.

Teased on @thelastofthebugs the same day the tracklist was announced. Fans thought Kahan was trolling by leaving it off. He wasn't. He was saving it for the people who stayed.

A ladybug appears on a fence in the music video, flying away as the two boys cross it. The bugs cross the divide before the people do.

Kahan has said "The Last of the Bugs" was almost the title of the entire album. He decided it was too esoteric for the standard edition - so he saved it for the people who went looking.

The album ends with two friends watching wasps drown in a Miller Lite, waiting for sunrise. The bugs open the album. The bugs close the album. The journey is complete.