A comfortable sadness.
Matt of citizen talks about Halcyon Blueswhy he returned to home studio and how Tom Lord-Alge He ended up mixing an album that no one expected him to mix.
citizen was born in Toledo, Ohio, and has been building one of the most honest catalogs of American emo and alternative rock for more than a decade. They do not chase trends, they do not marketing of content and do not think about the algorithm. They just write when they want to write and go on tour when they want to go. Halcyon Bluestheir new album, arrived in August: self-produced in the home studio of Mattmixed by Tom Lord-Alge, and built on a simple but difficult idea to sustain: staying in a state of discomfort because you are already used to it. On September 13 they play for the first time in Mexico in the first edition of the Vans Warped Tour CDMX.
Indie Rocks!: For someone discovering Citizen today, how would you describe the band and what three songs would you tell them to start with?
citizen: Am MattI sing in a band called citizen. We are from Toledo, Ohio. I would say we are an alternative rock band. Some would say emo or something, everything about the place. But I think alternative rock is the best umbrella term for all the subgenres you could classify us under.
And to start, I would say “I Want to Kill You”, “Night I Drove Alone” and “Highs and Lows” from the new album. I think that gives a good spectrum of the sound proposal of citizen. It’s like a roller coaster, the songs sometimes go like that, you know?
GO!: Citizen was described as a long-term creative project, not something built around chasing what’s hot at the moment. In a world so oriented to the quick hit and the algorithm, how do you sustain that vision?
C: We just do what we’ve always done. citizen It’s always been: I feel like writing songs, we write songs, we record them, we release them and we hope people like them. And I think we can continue to do that to this day because we established ourselves in a time when it was less about the algorithm and less about going viral.
I wouldn’t even know where to start if I were a new artist now. It seems that music has a lot to do with your social media presence more than the music itself. And that doesn’t excite me too much. Fortunately, neither does anyone in my band. So we don’t do things marketing which many people do now. This is not to criticize those who do it, I just don’t feel comfortable and I don’t think it’s the right thing for me.
And I understand, at the same time, that today anyone can make an album. You could be in the bathroom and record a song on your phone and it would sound amazing. So how do you distinguish yourself? I guess the way to set yourself apart is to put yourself out there and become a personality. I’m not saying it against anyone. If you want to achieve it, you have to stand out in some way. I’m just grateful that we were established in a time when that wasn’t a requirement.
GO!: The new album is called Halcyon Blues. Where did that title come from and why did you feel it was the right name for the record?
C: The way I interpret it, at least, I’ve never looked it up in Googleit’s like a comfortable sadness. Sometimes you get used to less than ideal situations or emotions simply because you are already used to it and it feels good to be in a non-optimal state. That’s what Halcyon Blues means to me.
GO!: Life In Your Glass World you self-produced it in your home studio. Calling the Dogs They recorded it in an outside studio in LA with Rob Schnapf. and now stop Halcyon Blues you returned to home studio. What pulled you back?
C: The main difference would be more outside opinion. When you go to record with someone, they are essentially producing you. and the gear also. we did Calling the Dogs with Rob Schnapfwho is a very guy old school. That’s why that album sounds the way it sounds, very stripped backbecause we wanted to sound like a band playing in a garage. And that’s exactly his thing. It’s very good.
But I’m such a control freak that when I see how other people do things, even if they’re not doing it wrong at all, the whole time I’m thinking: why is it like that? Why are they doing it like this? Why don’t we do this better? Why don’t we continue here? It’s very stressful in my head.
When the time came for the new album I said: I want to do it again. And everyone said: “sure.” So I took a lot of time to study, to practice how to record, I got equipment, I learned how to use it. And I think the new album sounds really amazing and I’m really proud of it.
GO!: They sent the album to be mixed with Tom Lord-Alge, who has an incredible discography working with U2, Blink-182, Weezer. How was that experience?
C: We had someone else confirmed to mix the album and we had a meeting with him. He was one of those who said: “I like to do my thing”, deconstruct the mixes, all that. Sounds great at first, right? Very creative. But when we started receiving the mixes, the essence of the songs, at least as we wanted them, had disappeared. And eventually that guy just said, “I don’t do what you want.” And we said, “ok, time to find someone else.” All very respectful, but that’s how it was.
We were short on time. I made a list of people I knew would do a good job. Tom Lord-Alge was one of them. and our managerEveryone told me: “Tom You are not going to do a test mix. We are going to write to you but you are not going to do it, because it is Tom“Ok, whatever.
We were getting test mixes from everyone. And then at the last minute one of Tom Lord-Alge. And we all said, “what?” It sounded incredible. And then he calls me. Was “Highs and Lows”. He tells me: “wey, I love the song, I love the drums.” And he keeps talking about how he did this or that, something I had never experienced, much less with someone at his level. It was so unexpected in the best way possible. I could tell this guy really wanted this album.
And when you do something creative, the most you can ask for is that someone cares half as much as you care about your own work. Because no one is going to care as much as you do. And that was very special.
Also, you hear stories of high-level mixers getting the project and handing it off to their assistants and just supervising. And we were thinking, “Is that what’s going to happen if we go with Tom?” No. He called me directly. It was at his desk. He did all the recalls himself. He was a one-man operation and was very receptive to any notes. Which wasn’t many because it was very good. That guy is simply a beast.
GO!: In September they will be part of the first Vans Warped Tour CDMX. How do you feel about being in that historic lineup?
C: I’m very excited, really. We have never been to Mexico. And we have only heard very good things from our friends: that you have to go to Mexico, that you have to go to Mexico. I don’t know why we’ve never been. But we are all very excited and have high expectations. It’s going to be incredible.
GO!: In closing, what have you been listening to lately? Anything you want to recommend?
C: I’ve been listening a lot to a band called Dark Thoughts. I think they’re amazing and I think they should be huge. They are very good. Go listen to Dark Thoughts.
