PREMIERE: Petrov Unleashes the Vulnerability on New Single ‘Protector’

Above a stately metronomic beat, skirling rock guitars soar while Petrov frontwoman Mary Grace McKusick unleashes a preternaturally powerful and sustained vocal: “Dreams in a different hue/ I know they’re from you…”

The differences in “Protector,” the latest single from Charlotte indie-rock powerhouse Petrov, are not confined to the colors mentioned in the tune’s lyrics.

The song’s sound marks a departure for the band, best known for pairing corkscrewing guitars, percolating post-punk bass, galloping drums and McKusick’s untrammeled vocals in a careening collision of rock, punk and pop. 

In contrast, “Protector” is a slow-burning majestic rocker that saves a brief time-signature twist for the song’s end. Queen City Nerve premieres the tune below.

“It has a grungier sound [and] a slower tempo,” says drummer Garrett Herzfeld. “[The song] is a big change for us, and we like that.”

“Protector” is one of three singles released recently by the Charlotte five-piece, which has earned multiple accolades since launching in 2018, when guitarists Syd Little and Michael Backlund began writing with bassist Matt McConomy and drummer Herzfeld.

“Protector” is a foretaste of Petrov’s first full-length collection, a self-titled LP that drops May 2 with a release party at Snug Harbor. It will be the band’s first collection since its Flower Bed EP, which dropped in 2020, earning the group Best Pop-Punk Band honors in Queen City Nerve’s Best in the Nest issue that year.  

UPDATE, 5/2/25: The full album dropped today. Check it out below. 

Like Flower Bed, “Protector” was produced by Kenny McWilliams at Archer Avenue Studio in Columbia, South Carolina, and mastered by Dave Harris at Studio B in Charlotte.

On the song, Little and Backlund weave gentle whirlpools from one guitar with clangorous jagged slashes from another as the tune slowly builds into a tidal wave of emotions. McKusick’s heart-wrenching lyrics are vocalized as a vulnerable yet full-throttled confession about being blindsided by loss. 

“I can’t help but think so selfishly/ Like why was it you instead of it being me?/ You left your room so neat/ I haven’t left mine in weeks/ And when I got to sleep/ It’s so I can see you again…”

In an email to Queen City Nerve, McKusick confirmed that the song is about losing a friend to suicide. 

“The guilt you feel that you could have done more, and the feeling of wanting to go back to get one last word in,” she described. “I have experienced many different kinds of grief and sudden death is always the hardest to grieve.”

“The song is … special to us because it’s special to Mary Grace,” Herzfeld adds.

Herzfeld notes that, although “Protector” is one of the slower songs that will appear on the upcoming Petrov LP, audiences have responded enthusiastically when the band has played it live.

“I hope they’re not expecting all of [the new songs] to be like this, because obviously they’re not,” says Herzfeld, noting that the forthcoming album leads off with faster material that’s more in line with the band’s usual energetic, intricate and muscular tunes.

“The first half of the album has a more upbeat vibe,” Herzfeld notes. “Then it goes into darker moments.” 

Given that progression, it’s fitting that the collection closes out with “Protector.”

Being a Petrov tune, “Protector” does take a left turn from its adopted 1990s Pearl Jam-style vibe. Near the end, after a maelstrom of shrieking feedback, the song breaks stride and segues into a nimble double-time tempo with conjoined chunky and spiraling guitars. 

This short respite from the tune’s measured rhythms ends as McKusick pleas, laments and rages: “How does it feel/ To wake up and know you’re healed?”

The question goes unanswered, and it remains a mystery whether McKusick will ever hear a response from her friend who departed much too soon.

Read more: Petrov Takes Center Stage in Charlotte’s Indie Rock Scene (2021)