Cherie Amour: Nu-Punk and Everything Else
In a scene where every band is desperate to be different, it takes a certain level of experimentation to stand out from the rest, but CHERIE AMOUR are going above and beyond. The four-piece from Baltimore are making their dramatic entrance into alternative music with their debut album Spiritual Ascension, with a chaotic mix of pop-punk, hip-hop and rap. We sit down with vocalist Trey Miller to find out more about the album and CHERIE AMOUR in general.
He explains, “I’m just really ready for everyone to hear the songs. I’m not scared for people to hear the album, but I was definitely scared going in to record and actually writing it. During the whole process I was thinking, can I write a whole album? So, there were some nerves going in, but now it’s just pure energy and excitement.”
While their music is generally pretty upbeat, Spiritual Ascension deals with some difficult themes, and the album follows Trey through a difficult time in his personal life. “It was really a period of trying to discover myself,” Trey says. “I was reading a whole bunch of religious texts, and doing meditation, and I didn’t know exactly what I was believing in at the time.”
Although the album is deeply personal, it’s also easy to connect with, and it’s likely many people will deal with the same problems. Trey says, “I’m trying to relate to other people who may find themselves confused, or trying to figure out young adulthood. I was just really stressed, with anxiety and depression, and I just kept looking for answers everywhere. I think people will relate to feeling unsettled. I always have hope and faith that things will get better, but you don’t always see how.”
While the album asks the questions of ‘why are we here’ and ‘what happens when we are gone’, it doesn’t necessarily answer them. “I got comfortable in not having all the answers I used to wrack my brain for, and I kind of accepted that anybody’s reality is what they want to make it, and that I don’t have all the answers and I never will. Sometimes it’s just cool to ask and explore anyway.”
When a band is as experimental as CHERIE AMOUR, it’s always interesting to see what people will think of the music. Trey says, “even stuff I didn’t think people would like a lot, like the latest single Losing Control, a lot of people were really excited about that. I was really nervous because it’s such a different sound than anything we’ve ever done or people are even putting out in this scene, but all of the reception has been really positive for the most part. There’s always a weird hate comment here or there, but it’s like what’s one or two negative comments to the 100 positive ones.” This could come down to the way the band don’t really fit into a genre and people don’t know what to expect, but it means they stand out. “Our goal is to make something different, and I kind of thought sometimes we could tone it down and do something that’s a little more in common with what other people are doing, and we could get more attention than we have, but I don’t know if I’d feel fulfilled as an artist. But hey, if we like this, there’s going to be people out there that like it, they’re gonna rock with it.”
Because this was the first time CHERIE AMOUR have recorded a full-length album, it’s almost inevitable they would face some difficulties, but Trey reminisces on the time positively. He explains, “recording the album was actually so much fun, because there was an apartment downstairs from the studio and we were all staying there for two weeks. The actual process at times was challenging because we’d go in with a set of demos and completely switch things up.” The album was produced by Alan Day of FOUR YEAR STRONG, who also produced their EP. Trey describes working with him, and says, “I like that he thinks outside of the box a lot like we do. We always say we’re about to go on a vibe journey when we’re in the studio. Alan doesn’t try to check us on our craziness, he’s just like ‘that’s weird, let’s go for it’.”
One challenge that the band faced was when recording the track Sin City, Alan wanted Trey to move the chorus to the verse, and rewrite the chorus. “I was like, are you serious? He said, ‘I know you’ve got something even better’. I walked away from the studio like ‘can you believe this dude?’ But I came back with something else, and I really appreciate Alan challenging me in that way. It reminded me of, I used to play football in college, and my coach would get something more out of you than you ever thought you could, and that’s basically what Alan did there.”
While CHERIE AMOUR are only on their first album, it’s clear they’re just getting started. “I think we’re really trying to create our own lane,” Trey says. “Something I’ve always said is I want to stay two to three years ahead of the curve, something that sounds fresh but not so far out that nobody’s going to get it. It would be cool to see other bands influenced by our sound, it’d be awesome to say we pioneered something.”
Spiritual Ascension is out now via Rude Records/Equal Vision Records.
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