Save Face - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Save Face. We discussed the writing and recording process for new album, ‘Another Kill For The Highlight Reel’, what influenced the album sonically, the themes it explores, how the videos are meant to show you the transformation of the band and put you in the world of the album, how upcoming songs will do things they’ve never done before, favorite musical moments from the album, the album’s artwork, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Yeah, of course.
You recently announced your new album, ‘Another Kill For The Highlight Reel’ will be out October 29th. Can you tell me about writing and recording the album?
I lived at 3 different addresses in 2020, all of the writing happened throughout all of that and even spilled well into the Spring of 2021 (I did do some pre-writing/exploring in the second half of 2019 but I didn’t know what I was really doing then). I worked on it every day once I started, I have hundreds of logic sessions and notebooks to show for it, most of which is probably really bad aside from the final songs on the album. Recording was done in a lot of different spaces, a lot of vocals were done in my apartment which is normal for me.
The bulk of recording was at Barbershop Studios in December of last year with Brett Romnes and a long long list of talented people who were all part of the album in different ways. 4 weeks in December, scattered dates at the studio throughout January, and then I ended up spending almost all of March in the studio with last minute additions, changes. A lot of these were still being added while the album already started mixing. There are just so many layers and components to this thing, it needed a lot of time and iterations to complete. I could go on for hours about a million more details but I’ll end here.
Sonically, at least from the first two singles, you’re incorporating some new elements and sounds into your music. What pushed these new songs in that direction and what influenced you?
I’m not really sure. I have a hard time believing that anyone would want to keep making stuff the same as what they’ve already made before. Also maybe an absence of concern about whether any of it fits in with what others around me are making, or ‘the scene’ I guess? Becoming a lot more familiar with my own mortality, and how that affected my perspective on a lot of things. I literally don’t have time to not write a record like this you know, like, my time is probably almost up. So when you really start feeling like that every day, like you are about to die, I don’t know. If you’re me, then you start working on a thing, every day, until you end up with something like this.
The album seems to be creating a concept or at least a theme. Is there a concept or overarching theme? Can you tell us more about it?
The album isn’t concerned about narrative in a direct sense, which is often involved when talking about ‘concept albums’ I think. I was more concerned with world-building and immersive songwriting, and I think narrative elements evolved naturally from there. I can say that the main themes of the album deal with death/new life of course, that’s probably the most obvious. But all of it has to do with the idea of family, and identity. And a lot about power, reclaiming power for yourself/from others that have taken your power away from you.
The videos for the album have been really unique and interesting. What were your influences for them stylistically?
GLITTER was meant to be a sonic and visual metaphor for the transformation of the band. Sonically it starts similar to previous material, but I think it evolves throughout and has some twists that lead you to where we’re going with the album. I wanted the video to add to that metaphor, I wanted there to be 3 main colors to the video: white room, red attire, black instruments (tying in with the album artwork). By the end of the video, the blood is covering every inch of the room, intending to mirror that transformation to the band’s new era. Bury Me (Tonight!), the goal was to put you in the world of the album, as literally as possible. I think they both end up fitting well together and paint the visual world of this album. The goals were clear so they informed everything, it wasn’t that hard to paint the picture once we knew what we were going for.
Is there a song on the album that you think is really going to surprise people and/or one that you’re most excited for listeners to hear? Why?
Our next single does things we have never done or tried to do before. The last song on the album does things that none of our peers have ever done or tried to do before.
What’s your favorite musical moment on the album?
There are so many that I’m really proud of. Second verse of Bury Me (Tonight!), mid-section of Sharpen Your Teeth, Geoff Rickly’s guest vocal on A.M. Gothic, Last chorus of the last song. I could pick several moments from each song, there are so many interesting and musically rewarding parts for me.
I really like the artwork, it feels iconic, as well as the vinyl variants for the album. Who came up with and designed the artwork?
I appreciate you saying that! The idea for the artwork was mine, I drew concept art, showed it to my friend Joel, we talked about it a lot, my friends Connor and Cody took the photo, Joel edited the photo into what ended up being the final artwork. I picked all the vinyl variants, colors and names! Everything is an extension of the songs, everything can be part of the story.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Please just listen to this album when it comes out on 10/29 and let me know how much you loved it or despised it I'd really love to know. Thank you for letting me talk about this!
Follow Save Face:
Follow Sound In The Signals:
No comments: