Like Pacific: Black Clouds & Silver Linings

It’s nearly two years since COVID-19 came and conquered us like a bat out of hell. Sometimes it feels like every man and his dog is talking about it. The world might be on fire, but for the first time in decades, society is united in our common struggles. Sure, we can’t go to shows and sing our hearts out. But our favourite bands are bringing out some of their best music thanks to the extra time the pandemic has given them. For LIKE PACIFIC, It’s been a black cloud and silver linings situation. On one hand, their touring plans got cut short and they had to stay apart from each other. On the other, repeat lockdowns led to repeat reflections and Control My Sanity, a record they didn’t quite expect.

“With all the lockdowns happening in Toronto, it was up in the air at all times. One day we’d have four people in the studio, the next day it’s a lockdown,” explains vocalist Jordan Black, reflecting on the last two years as he sips his second coffee of the day. “It was insanely hard to do, and any communication was just voice notes over iPhone and obviously everyone has different lives – some of us were working, some of us weren’t – and it was all over the place.”

Like the world around them, LIKE PACIFIC – completed by bassist Brad Garcia, drummer Taylor Ewart, and guitarists Greg Hall and Luke Holmes – were running around like headless chickens. With everyone scattered across Toronto, and writer’s block rearing its ugly head, the pandemic threatened to throttle their plans. Instead of giving up, they persevered.

“Writing this record is the only thing that kept us going, but it was like really strange to do. The first couple of months I was so creatively blocked, and all I had to do was nothing, like I just had time on my hands, so I had to work through,” he reflects, always looking back with a sense of uncertainty. “Once I started to feel better about everything and I wasn’t as foggy and shit, It was a little easier and eventually I realised what I wanted to write about.”

And once Jordan got going, Control My Sanity fell into place like pieces of a puzzle. The world works in weird ways, so much so that the first song that felt like they had something later became its title track. “I showed Control My Sanity, the song, to a couple of friends and we were all like ‘this is it,’ like this is the identity of the album and we just rolled with it,” he smiles coyly, one of many matter-of-fact moments. “When we were thinking of album names, it rolls off the tongue really easily, like I love a good tattoo line, like three words or whatever and it’s not super predictable.”

Jordan might seem subtle and coy on the surface but dig a little deeper and Control My Sanity means a lot more than you might think to the frontman. Having spent time struggling with depression and taking antidepressants, the title track, and the album it encapsulates captures a fragile state of mind flicking back and forth between emotions.

“It’s a mix between your brain working on different wavelengths, because you’re now taking a drug that’s supposed to help you, but it’s not really doing that, and then on top of that, you’ve got someone manipulating you,” he opens up, a rare moment where his cards aren’t kept as close to his chest. “Control My Sanity, if anything, is me being trapped in my own head whilst my brain is suffering from someone else’s terrible life.”

And with the world suddenly shutting down before their eyes, it’s been a terrible time for too many of us. And through that LIKE PACIFIC have found a commonality with the world in Control My Sanity. Isolation, it seems, can bring us together.

“Isolation is a big theme on this record, like it’s kind of funny that it’s all like that because of the pandemic, but for the most part, I was isolated in my own head. Like, I was having these thoughts that were like really driven like ‘this is a problem, and I’m upset, what should I do’ and then there were days were I’m like ‘I’m upset, there’s no way to fix this kind of thing.’”

It’s a constant state of flux we can all relate with. It’s this open vulnerability that elevates their pop-punk to anthemic levels. And it’s something LIKE PACIFIC know – they know listeners will find themselves through these songs and it’s something they’re coming to terms with. “I think with this record, if anything, it’s going to be more relatable because everyone is going through the exact same thing,” he laughs, pausing to reflect before adding, “hopefully people can interpret the songs the way they want to interpret them, or feel comfortable with, because I wrote the song for me, I didn’t write it for anyone else, but I want it to translate well so that someone can interpret it in their own way.”

Whilst the pandemic bought them pain, it also bought them the time to create an album that does more than give the world bangers. In Control My Sanity, LIKE PACIFIC channel their frustrations into a collection that captures what the world is going through, giving us all an opportunity to not feel so bad for feeling bad.

Control My Sanity is out now via Pure Noise Records.

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