"We buried kids sometimes, in a part of the cemetery we called BabyLand," Wise Blood says. "Before I started [making music], I felt bad for myself because I got out of a long term relationship, but then I realized that this dead kid was just nine years old. It helped me embrace life, even the terrible shit."

Christopher Laufman -- a Pittsburgh native who goes by Wise Blood -- is parlaying the darkness of those days into something a bit lighter on These Wings, an EP to be released this summer on Dovecote Records. Already, The Fader has wondered if the track "Solo (4 Claire") was recorded in an "old-timey saloon," Pitchfork has given him its "Rising" title, Stereogum has dubbed him a "cemetery worker/warped bedroom-pop alchemist" and fashion icon Daphne Guinness has given her stamp of approval as the star in a video for "B.I.G. E.G.O.
Lead single "I'm Losing My Mind" perhaps best represents the theme stretching across These Wings' seven tracks and Laufman's twelve-plus months as an undertaker. The despair in the song is palpable and Laufman seems six-feet-deep until the optimism of lessons learned leaks through in the form of his melodic gifts. Elsewhere on the EP, "Loud Mouths" saunters across a haunted piano and crackling snares as Wise Blood sings about "snakes in disguise" and his samples turn into church. Much of Wise Blood's music, both on his debut EP, +, and on These Wings, is built upon samples, like a Beach House song drenched in heavy bass. "I wanted to make pop songs but have them be a collage from different sources to make something new," he told Pitchfork. "I really want to focus on melody, I think it's one of the most important aspects of music, being able to mix noise and melody and have it work right."

The translation of recorded material into a live show can be difficult for self-contained artists like Wise Blood; inexperience often leads to either overcompensation or the watering-down of the music's essence. But there's a reason that Laufman's grandfather refused to call his grandson "young blood"—instead opting for the monker "wise blood" long before the teenager was aware of the Flannery O'Connor novel. Laufman has enlisted two musicians to back him while he focuses on vocals that provide the type of entertainment that makes pop legends. It's a concerted effort to make something more tangible and enduring than what turns up on the blogs these days, despite the fact that those very same blogs have helped to build Wise Blood's buzz up to this point.

"If I want to read more great things about me, I have to put out more great music. I feel like right now in music there's a quick turn-around expected for everything, which is kind of rough. This is the time of music I'm in, I have to adjust but also not concede. I can't make a bad product just to get it out quick."