STACK #162 April 2018

MUSIC NEWS

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and its happy consequence: higher thinking. “The boredom I was describing in Destruction is more of this terrible kind… you’re trying to constantly plug this little hole, if you’re standing on the street for five minutes.” There’s a similar

INTERVIEW

CITY CALM DOWN I n their artist’s statement for new album Echoes In Blue , City Calm Down describe the music as an attempt to question the modern condition rather than solve any of its dread riddles about love, money and work. They say that maybe we “forget to be bored” – but the lyrics to opening track Distraction/Losing Slee p say “I’m bored to death at 29.” Are there, then, different kinds of boredom – some noxious and some not? “That’s very much what I was trying to get at,” says vocalist Jack Bourke. “I’ve found this to be the case: you can sit just scrolling through Facebook, you’re bored, you’re being stimulated in a certain way, but not in a way that actually encourages you to think more deeply.” Bourke recalls a podcast he listened to which discussed the importance of true boredom,

psychological investigation in the soaring synths and Joy Division-galloping drums of stand-out Decision Fatigue ; the title refers to an observed phenomenon wherein the quality of our decisions will worsen over a long period of decision- making. “It’s sort of on the opposite side of Joan,

Echoes In Blue by City Calm Down is out April 6 via IOHYOU.

TOURING 8/06 - 30/06

I’m Disappearing ,” Bourke says, referring to the album’s beautifully melancholic, ride-cymbal- syncopated lead single. “There’s sort of an apology and regret on the other side of it. When I was writing the lyrics to [ Decision Fatigue ], I was feeling quite exhausted. There are so many decisions you need to make… so many drafts and so many re- writes… weekends and nights after work.” It was, Bourke says, a super trying time for each bandmember’s partner. “The arrangement was inspired by the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt , and Johnny Cash’s cover,” he says. “[I wanted to] capture that intensity in the vocal. I guess you’re sort of singing from the

“one continuous piece of music,” and points out the arpeggio motif which binds them – but when it came to magnificent six-and- a-half-minute closer Echoes In Blue , the band collected threads from everywhere and nearly went mad stitching them into this one stunning creation. “It was the chicken or the egg,” Bourke laughs. “Like, if we set the drums and the bass to do this, then we weren’t happy with how the bass would be, so our other bass needs to be like this, so Lee [Armstrong, drummer] would need to fiddle around.” Adds bandmate Sam Mullaly: “Out of all the tracks that we went into the studio with, it was probably the least mapped- out. I’m having flashbacks!” ZKR

other side of the relationship – it was like a flip on that.” There are several connections like this between songs across the album – Bourke describes Blame, April 13 and Decision Fatigue as

You're being stimulated in a certain way, but not in a way that actually encourages you to think more deeply

continued from previous page UNDEROATH

hissing verses in SinkWithYou . Did these two parts ever exist as separate songs? Sink With You started off as just the intro. We wrote the rest in the studio. We vibed with [producer] Matt Squire until we felt good about it. This song fell into place pretty naturally; we were stoked on what was coming out of the speakers and finished the track pretty much the first day we started working on it. The chorus in HoldYour Breath is massive. Did you imagine it as a big live moment? How

much do you think about the live performance when you’re writing/ recording? I do think about live moments sometimes – what’s a good set opener, what will be fun to play – but that wasn’t the idea with this track. Aaron had written the music to that chorus a while back and we both played with a melody together [and] tracked a few ideas down. Last minute I came up with the idea that you hear today,

this vocal effect? Nobody wanted vocals on it at first. I kept getting unsettled by the idea of the melody I had for the verse, and felt like I needed to bring it up. We all loved the vocal and turned it into a song completely. This song was basically done pre -vocal; then we added it on top to finish the track.

Erase Me by Underoath is out April 6 via Fearless.

before leaving a writing/demoing session, to follow the drum lead-in and turn around. Once I laid it down in the vocal we both knew that was the one. ZKR

I love the punching industrial choruses verses the creeping,

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APRIL 2018

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