Combat - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Combat. We discussed how they tried to capture their live sound on their new album, their recording process, songwriting, signing with Counter Intuitive, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Of course! Thanks for reaching out!
We interviewed you a couple years ago and you said it was your first interview at the time. A lot has happened since then. What do you think has helped build buzz for you these last couple of years?
That’s actually so crazy to me. I was so stoked someone wanted to interview me haha and jazzed we can do it again. I think the biggest thing that’s helped us build buzz was just playing shows constantly to tons of different people all the time. A bunch of really awesome folks saw us in the time since our last record and seemed to really like us so there has been word going around I guess about our band for the last year or so but it was only ever good word as a live band.
We’ve actually had a bunch of people tell us that they wished we sounded as amped up on our records as we did live and so when we went in to record our primary goal was to capture that. I think when the record got announced and singles started rolling out there was something that people who liked seeing us live could actually latch onto.
You recently released your album ‘Stay Golden”. Can you tell me about the writing and recording process?
I started writing it probably a month before our album “Text Me When You Get Back” came out. I was a freshman in college living on campus at 17 years old and coming out of a sort of creative slump and then at 3 in the morning I sat at my computer and wrote the title track of the album and texted my bandmates that the new album was called Stay Golden then sent the first demo.
I then slowly finished writing it for the next year and a half. The album had varying levels of ambition in its conceptual state, but I’m really happy with where we landed. We recorded the album at Tonal Park in Takoma Park Maryland with our friend Ryland from Origami Angel producing and our friend Alex from Snail Mail and Prude engineering. It definitely helped to have them two of them there to help us record it so that we were in a more relaxed and less sterile environment but the whole ordeal was still super nerve-racking.
We did all the instrumentals in about four days during Thanksgiving week and I distinctly remember recording guitars for the final song until literally an hour and a half after we needed to be out of the studio. We were extremely down to the wire. Vocals and auxiliary instruments I had the luxury of recording at Ryland’s studio over the course of about two months and that was a much more relaxed environment where I felt like I could really take as much time as I needed to get everything sounding exactly how we wanted.
How do you think you’ve grown as songwriters since ‘Text Me When You Get Back’?
I’ve grown a lot haha. It took me up to that album to figure out how to write actual fast punk songs and so being able to tour a handful of times after writing that album helped me get a lot more comfortable with my own songwriting and able to explore different ventures. I kinda got to make this new album everything that I wanted the first album to be and more. I can still definitely look back and be proud of myself, but I can at the same time look back and fully recognize that I was definitely 16 when I was writing it.
I think the album is great. Which song are you most proud of on the album? Why?
I’m super glad you like it! I think my favorite on the album is definitely Epic Season Finale, for a while I wrote it as a song that “couldn’t ever be a combat song” but was able to rework it and add a bunch of quirks to it that make it super fun to play. I feel like the buildup to the first chorus feels really rewarding.
On the other hand I’m probably most proud of Weird Ending part 1 and 2 for separate reasons. I had planned for both to be on the album for a while but it took me months to finally start writing and finishing them; it felt super daunting to actually accomplish what I wanted them to be and a bunch of the ideas on part 1 at least were being worked on for probably a year or longer.
I’m really happy I was able to incorporate parts from a bunch of our previously released music in part 1 going back to even our first EP which I honestly try to ignore exists. I’m equally thrilled with how the sort of orchestral bridge kinda thing came out in part 2 and am really satisfied with all of the intricate tempo changes and such.
You signed with Counter Intuitive. How did you end up signing with them? How’s it going so far?
Counter Intuitive was definitely the dream “what-if” label for me for a really long time. When Ryland agreed to help produce I figured that we’d at that point at least be somewhat on their radar and would maybe have some semblance of a chance. It really wasn’t until after the album was nearly fully tracked that I found out that Jake was interested and got the official offer a little bit later.
It’s going incredibly well! Everybody that they work with has been incredibly kind and helpful and the reception that the singles alone have gotten has been beyond anything we ever could have imagined, I definitely don’t think that would have been the case without their helping hand.
On top of that I hugely admire the way they operate as a business and as a larger “DIY” label. I feel like I have so much freedom as an artist to do what I want. Truthfully it was their business structure and freedom they gave artists that made me decide for some time that if Counter Intuitive didn’t take the record that we’d just release it on our own entirely independently. I’m really glad they took the record haha.
Counter Intuitive has been instrumental in launching the careers of so many great bands. How does it feel to know your band will now be part of that?
It really does feel insane. I used to watch their webstore obsessively in high school and kind of knew that if an artist or album was affiliated with them in any way that it would guaranteed be worth a listen. It makes me feel incredibly unbelievably lucky to think that people will likely discover our band being in the same position I was when I was younger.
Do you have any favorite albums or artists from the label? Why?
They feel like super obvious picks but Mom Jeans, Prince Daddy & Origami Angel were hugely instrumental for me as a person learning how to create music and understand DIY music. Prince Daddy & Origami Angel specifically just feel like so much of my music taste growing up condensed and refined into singular bands that I was able to really resonate from the jump of discovering them.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Of course! Thank you so so much for asking me to do this! Anyone who might end up reading this that wants to start a band, but hasn’t already should definitely do it. It’s the coolest thing in the world and the best decision I have ever made. I’ve made so many awesome friends, have learned so much about myself and about how to navigate the world and treat people. If you’re already in a band then shoutout. That’s what’s up. Go get em.
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