Writing the perfect pop song is a lofty goal, one that’s out of the reach of most songwriters. But Steve Ciolek is not most songwriters. The 29-year-old is the frontman of the Sidekicks, a Columbus, Ohio, quartet whose two most recent albums—2015’s Runners in the Nerved World and this year’s Happiness Hours—are packed with ultra-hooky pop-rock tunes that will bounce around your brain for a good long while.
Ciolek is always looking for ways to hone his craft, which is why he approached Happiness Hours with a goal: to write more clearly than he did on Runners (which he says has an “internal view”) so that more folks can find something to connect with in his songs.
“This record, some people might view it as more simplistic,” he says from a rest stop somewhere on the road to Buffalo. “But if people don’t understand what you’re saying in the song, it’s not their fault. It’s your fault as the writer. It goes along with the whole ‘chasing the perfect pop song’ thing, where it’s like, anybody should be able to hear it and understand it and think it’s good.”