FLOOD MAGAZINE: While the post-pandemic era has long been marked by interesting musical collaborations, few have been the result of two artists hitting it off during a podcast and moving from one recording booth to another. Such is the case of musician, artist, and podcaster Brett Newski—who now records just under the name Newski—and The Verve Pipe’s Brian Van Der Ark, who first connected on Newski’s podcast Dirt From the Road before recognizing that their chemistry wasn’t limited to banter.

“Why Even Bother?,” the brand new single from Newski which features harmonies from Van Der Ark, sounds dutifully reverential for the ’90s alt-rock scene that’s lent Dirt From the Road so many of its guests, while the lyrics take on a religious hypocrisy that feels a little more timeless. “‘I don’t believe in church, but I do believe in God’—a very drunk nightclub owner said this to me on a sidewalk in Lisbon, Portugal at 8 a.m.,” Newski recalls. “I think religion can be a wonderful thing. However, when it is used in super-abundance, individuals can exploit it to pawn off all self-responsibility to a higher power. Regardless of what we believe in, we gotta take responsibility for our own actions before we harm others.”