Teenage Wrist: Laid Bare And Loved Up
Earth Is a Black Hole, the second album by LA alt-rockers TEENAGE WRIST, ushered in a new era for the band and one that, so far, has proved very successful. After recording 2018 debut Chrome Neon Jesus as a trio – and a short period where the band was a quartet – by the time Earth Is A Black Hole came about the band were just two: guitarist and vocalist Marshall Gallagher and drummer Anthony Salazar. Their sophomore release garnered a lot of praise, to the point the album is currently close to a collective 13 million plays on Spotify. When it came time to write and record their third release, Still Love, the pressure to deliver must have been there.
Pressure? What pressure? “Yeah, weirdly we weren’t feeling anything like that,” admits Marshall. “It wasn’t for any reason other than who we are becoming as individuals, you know? I’m coming into my late 30s now – the pressure for me personally to do something that’s the next big thing is non-existent. I’m now in a mindset of ‘you know what? Whatever comes next, I’m just going to roll with it and hold onto it for as long as possible.”
“The whole energy of the new record was that we need to make sure that we’re doing what’s authentic to us,” continues Anthony. “We took the time that we needed to make sure that we produced something that was a representation of us, and as everyone trusted we would come out with something, any pressure disappeared quickly.”
This desire to do something as true to themselves as possible saw TEENAGE WRIST ring in the changes in the recording studio – instead of the multiple takes and layers that Colin Brittain’s production style required on Earth Is A Black Hole, the band decided to produce the record themselves with a little help from engineer Kevin McCombs and make it as minimal as possible. “Earth Is A Black Hole came out incredible, but I realised that all of my favourite records are the opposite of that sound,” explains Marshall. “Usually a single vocal completely untuned, the drums are a little bit out of time, as a band actually sounds as opposed to something more artificial.”
“Yeah, we would come up with ideas like ‘I saw this at one point, let’s try it ourselves and tweak it our own way’,” continues Anthony. “Let’s put a PA in the drum room and blast the snare and kick out of it just to make it sound like METALLICA and see what happens? Yeah, let’s do it!”
“We also lucked out with Epitaph as a label,” Marshall resumes. “They saw we were interested in producing and gave us the opportunity to do this ourselves and it worked out; they’re in this with us for the long run.”
The result is a record that’s a lot more cathartic than Earth Is A Black Hole, emphasised by Marshall’s lyric sessions that saw him forgive himself for not always living up to other’s expectations. From the explosive opening of Sunshine to the grunge-laden Cold Case and the all out chaos of closing track Paloma a.k.a Ketamine, this is a band throwing off their burdens and striding forward lighter and freer than ever before. Also helping out on the record are no less than five guest collaborations, like Doug ‘S.A’ Martinez from 311 on Dark Sky. “We sat on that song for months!” Laughs Marshall. “We had a bridge section that was totally blank and we didn’t know what to do with it; we threw a number of things at the wall and nothing really stuck. Then this came out of thin air – it was one of those miracle moments you dream about!”
Another of the guest spots is from HEAVENWARD, the band formed by ex-TEENAGE WRIST member Kamtin Mohager and whom is now on very good terms with his former bandmates. “There was a period where it was a bit uncomfortable, which is human nature” admits Marshall, “but after we got over the initial air and figured out that we weren’t actually pissed off at each other, we reached out and reconnected. He also does a bunch of our merch designs now!”
He’s also supporting them – right now TEENAGE WRIST are gearing up for a tour throughout the autumn with HEAVENWARD as openers and, for the first time in five years, they’re coming to the UK in December. “We wanted another record under our belt before we came back and then the pandemic happened, so that took 18 months out of the whole thing,” explains Marshall, “but now we have two, and we’re still riding the wave from the last one as we pick up the momentum for this record. As we never got to properly tour Earth Is A Black Hole, I think people are still excited to hear those songs live, so this now seems the perfect time.”
Still Love is out now via Epitaph Records.
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