Lennon KC stopped by Live & Local last week, ahead of the March 13 release of his new EP, “Don’t Give Me Sympathy, I’ll Take it.”

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“Don’t Give Me Sympathy” is the follow-up to Lennon KC’s 2025 album “Manic Pixie Dream Boy,” whose lead single “High Hopes N Paper Clips” was one of our favorite local songs of the year. Lennon says the inspiration for it came out of the high – and the low – of the immediate aftermath of that earlier album’s release.

“(It) started as the pendulum swing after I finished recording,” he says. “I was just really pent up and bored – and just started playing with computers, and my production, and had this collective beat sound thing forming. And then the (title) phrase came to me, and it had so much gravity – and all of the songs sort of started to form around the concepts.”

As for that catchy title: “I think it has several different interpretations,” he says. “It’s kind of a warning…(but) I think in general, (it’s about) somebody who is feeling fiercely independent, almost out of spite, out of hurt. And they get into this way of being that’s pretty toxic, pushing people (away), keeping them at arms’ length – but as soon as somebody gives an inch, you take a mile.”

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The EP drops on Friday, March 13, and Lennon is celebrating the release with a pair of shows: Tuesday, February 10, at Cat’s Cradle Back Room (along with Bedroom Division and William Hinson), followed by a headlining show Thursday, March 26, at Rubies on Five Points in downtown Durham (with Recess Party and Maximilian).

Lennon KC stopped by Live & Local to discuss the new EP and play two songs: “When It Hails” and “High Hopes N Paper Clips.” Listen:

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