Bottom Bracket - Sound In The Signals Interview
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| 📸 Tracy Conoboy |
I recently had the opportunity to interview Mario Cannamela of Bottom Bracket. We discussed the writing and recording process for the band’s new album, lyrical inspiration, the meaning behind the album title and artwork, collaborating with Count Your Lucky Stars, vinyl, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Of course, thank you so much for having us! 🙂
You recently released your new album ‘I’m So Afraid Of Where’. Can you tell me about writing and recording the album?
Yeah! So the songs on the new album were written over quite a long stretch of time, with some of the songs as old as 2020. Most of the songs were written during and after a major transitional period for the band as well; I moved to Chicago near the end of 2021, which brought a lot of unknowns and hard goodbyes for me going from my small hometown of Springfield, Illinois to the big city. I still have a lot of connections to my hometown, and it was really difficult to pull away from that, but I knew that I couldn’t live with myself if I had stayed there forever. I needed to leave my small bubble if I was going to grow as a person. Around that same time, Rob joined the band, and with Tim & Rob both originally from up here in the Chicago area, we pretty much became a Chicago band overnight. Most of the lyrics on the album were written over the first year or so of me living here and reflecting back on some of the more intense personal scenes leading up to the move and all the transition that came with it.
Recording the album felt like the culmination of all the demoing and recording we’ve done with previous projects over the years. All the guitar and bass we engineered ourselves, carefully piecing together each song in Rob’s basement in Palos Hills, IL. For drums, we connected with our good friend Andrei Milosevic and did all the tracking at his studio in Streamwood. We finished the record working with Tyler Floyd at Ohmstead in Chicago, doing vocals, auxiliary percussion, and splicing in other samples and production. Tyler and I have some connections with people close to us in our lives where it feels like we’re family, and I was so stoked to get to work with him. He’s an insanely skilled audio engineer and really knows how to produce that crisp modern emo sound.
I really like the song “Unsavory”. I think it has really good lyrics. What was the writing process like for that song specifically?
Thank you so much!! Unsavory came together like a lot of our songs do; typically we start with a Logic demo with a rough outline of the song, Tim and Rob add their secret sauce, and we work out the kinks and refine over several practices and writing sessions. Lately I’ve tried more to write lyrics while the music is being written, and I feel like sometimes that helps make for a more well-rounded song. Unsavory is a perfect example of an attempt at this, where there’s more “designed” space for the story, but of course there’s still plenty of room for flashy guitars and instrumentals.
Often when I work on lyrics, I have one moment or memory in mind. With this song, it was one of the last days I was living in Springfield, and it was markedly the last day of friendship with someone I was close to for a very long time. I basically watched this person’s whole life crumble when faced with being accountable for their actions, and on top of that I was moving and didn’t have time to fully process it on my end. Everything happened incredibly fast.
The album title is really interesting. What’s the meaning behind it and why did you choose it as the title?
The name is taken from the opening track of the album “A Condemnation”, where there’s a line “I’m so afraid of where we’ll end up after this”. This is referencing the same friend from “Unsavory” and how our relationship deteriorated so rapidly. But also it reflects the album’s theme of making big changes in life and not really knowing if they’re the right moves to make. Like in reference to moving to Chicago, where am I supposed to live? “Rainbow in the Rear View” is about this feeling too. Or generally in life, where am I supposed to direct my knowledge, my talents, my energy? It’s more or less representing fear of the unknown and maybe a little bit of quarter-life crisis too. Also, our first LP was called “I Don’t Care Enough to Stay”, and I wanted us to have a call back to that and a continuation of sorts of the band’s story.
I really like how your artwork has a similar theme with the bicycle. What is the significance of it to your band?
Well, our band name is a bike reference; the “bottom bracket” on a bike is the bearing that holds the crankset in place and allows the pedals to rotate freely. I had a bike in college where my pedals were really wobbly, but because the bottom bracket rusted shut, no one I brought it to was able to fix it, and I rode the bike all throughout college anyway because I was too stubborn to get a new one.
We’ve always naturally ended up using a bike in imagery for the band and it’s become part of our brand. I’ve always felt connected personally with riding a bike too. It’s exercise, adventure, nostalgia, freedom; bikes can be really emotional machines with all they can symbolize. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of longer distance rides around Chicago and recently rode my first half-century over the summer! Tim & Rob ride a lot as well, it’s something we all really enjoy.
You’re working with Count Your Lucky Stars for this album. What has it been like working with them so far?
Working with Keith and CYLS has been so amazing. He’s super friendly and accommodating to our vision, and he treats all of the bands on the label like family. I’ve known of Keith and the label since 2013 and have had admiration for them ever since; lots of CYLS bands back in the day like Dowsing and Free Throw were my gateway into emo as a freshman in college. We met IRL for the first time at a show in Chicago in March 2023 and really hit it off, and the rest is history.
The label is releasing a vinyl pressing for the album. How important is having physical media such as vinyl to your band?
I believe having a physical representation of your music makes things more tangible and personal for the listener. It’s like a certificate of your admiration for the music. Specifically with a record, you might not spin it all the time, but it becomes part of your collection; you can pull it off your shelf, view the covers up close, read through the insert, or even turn it into art hanging on your wall. I also like to think that when music is etched into vinyl, it feels more permanent, more immortalized.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
For Chicago readers, on November 21 we’re having the release show for “I’m So Afraid of Where” at Subterranean with so many awesome bands, including tenmonthsummer, Calicoloco, Sweet Bike, and Mt. Oriander! After that, we’re hitting the road from November 22 - December 10 playing dates throughout the midwest and south, come see us at a show! :)
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