Nothing if not prolific is Nashville singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and director Steve Voss (aka Tetherball). Following his 2014 full-length, Whimsy, Voss released his first of six planned EPs for 2016 on February 26 (along with a video for each of the four tracks) and he’s announcing the next in the series, Physical Violins.

Physical Violins was written, performed, and produced entirely by Voss himself. The EP mixes pop hooks and dark humor into the same package, with Voss balancing the sheer violence of his lyrics with bright bursts of melody, snatches of piano, and layers of electric guitar. Sunny at times and aggressive at others, it nods to his influences — including fellow left-of-center artists like Beck, St Vincent, and Spoon — while creating its own sound, spinning stories of gun-toting tigers, amnesiac WWII soldiers, and bloodthirsty gladiators along the way.