Sick Joy: We Don’t Feel Like Dying
It’s not an easy task to put out an optimistic spin on the inevitable traumas we all face in life. It’s even harder to get people to appreciate that through music. SICK JOY, with their grungey new record We’re All Gonna F***ing Die aim to do just that. We caught up with frontman Mykl Barton about straight talking, appreciating the negative and growing music from traumatic experiences.
The album has the air of someone who knows themselves and, without any pomp, has introspect on a plain and simple level. “That’s always been a thing for us,” Mykl agrees. “The music has always been a way to better understand ourselves and everything, even before it’s done and out, you know can look at how you feel. The song knows before you know.”
With We’re All Gonna F***ing Die there’s a through line of consistency that comes with good writing, but each song on this record deals with very different topics, from person growth from unhealthy relationships or even out of toxic headspaces. “I feel like everything I’m talking about is really negative,” he talks apologetically. “[Songs like stay numb are about] things from a while ago. With abusive stuff, or even just a bad relationship, it’s hard to see in the moment. Being a young man, being from a working-class place, it’s not a thing that is easily talked about. I’ve always been a defender of anyone who how does through domestic abuse, whatever the guise, which is ironic as I never caught it happening to myself. It doesn’t discriminate, you can be of any ilk or background and still end up in that place.”
It is a hard topic to process and display honestly, and one that Mykl felt he had to be careful with on his approach to make sure people heard what he was saying without being misconstrued. “I was kind of scared, because appearing a white straight male, or sort of, I didn’t want people to think I was going ‘aw poor me’. That’s not what I’m doing, but this was real and this was a huge thing in my life.”
Being self-reflective and genuinely open without looking for a pity party is a big part of what makes SICK JOY really engaging to listen to, with slow building, slick grooves or high energy aggression that channels that honest song writing. It’s refreshing to hear a band know where they’ve been and who they are, and still be able to draw and grow from it without losing themselves.
“talking to the drugs too, that happened years ago, but it’s only now that I can talk about it,” Mykl goes on. “If someone asks us, I can say it plainly. I’ve processed that bullshit council estate toxic masculinity where I don’t have to feel like I’m weak. I’m not weak, and I wish I had that clarity about it from the start. But hey, then I wouldn’t have gotten the song!”
For sure there’s a frankness to SICK JOY has a real charm. While appearing on the front of it to be hard faced about the world, by being so candid it actually allows more positive perspectives to come to the surface. That doesn’t make it any easier exposing that side of yourself and your experiences, however. On songs like i’ve got more than i need (and i don’t have much), that was very apparent. “I think it was the last one I wrote, and that was a bit scary,” he recalls. “I know what [the lyrics] mean, and how heavy they are, but it is a bit shrouded. I had a strange few years, and that stuff I went through really changed my view of everything. I had this mental swelling that kept building, and then it popped.”
“The chorus was about being at that point when you feel so on your own, that no matter how many people say, ‘this is normal; loads of people feel like this,’ you think, ‘I don’t give a shit about those people’, which makes me sound like a dick. But people don’t know how you personally feel in that exact moment. Of course, when you’re out of that place you can recognise there’s a reason for you being here and that there is a point. The verses are empowering and a push to keep going, but the chorus is still acknowledging that you feel like everything’s fucked.”
As mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of grim-faced determination with SICK JOY. That’s actually an unfair statement- they simply just don’t mask any ugliness they come across, they make a feature of it through music, in the hopes that it connects to the listener on a natural, organic level. They don’t shy away from reality; spade is a spade, and things can be shitty. That’s life, and it doesn’t last forever, so you’d better make the most of it while it’s in you. “I don’t want to be a fucking downer,” Mykl laughs. “When I sing about it, it turns it into something good. And that doesn’t necessarily mean something candy and gumdrops, it can mean you’re fucked off, and that’s ok, that’s how you’re harnessing it and not turning it in on yourself.”
We’re All Gonna F***ing Die is out now via SO Recordings.
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