As a reader of Cinepunx, it’s safe to assume you are into punk, dear reader. At a certain point in your late 20s, you either become insufferable about new wave music or hardcore. And as someone in a screamo band in your 30s, you gotta accept that you should incorporate something else other than You & I worship. Closedown have always shown love to new wave and on their newest release, The Doldrum Sound, they lean into it for most of the album as opposed to the sprinkled in parts of past. I sat down with Eddy and Ryan to talk about the new EP and our love of Robert Smith’s guitar tone.
Tell us about The Doldrum Sound. What inspired it?
Eddy: Obviously we leaned much further into the post-punk parts of what we do on this one, but we pulled from a little bit of everything. Obviously The Cure, New Order, Blitz (Second Empire Justice Era), Iceage, Broken Social Scene, Quicksand, that Isis/Aereogramme split, Antioch Arrow, Q and Not U, Crime In Stereo, Dinosaur Jr., Nick said Deftones and Defeater were influences for his drumming approach. I’m sure the others were inspired by things I’m unaware of, but these were some of the references in the room.
Ryan: Always been a huge Tears For Fears/Roland Orzabal fan. Definitely some Johnny Marr and Bowie/Rodgers-channeled elements thrown in there. Sparkly things with some atmosphere.
Eddy: Lyrically, I think we touch on a lot of the same topics amongst our catalog in different ways, whether that be micro or macro in scope.
“You Were Growing” is about dominance, social control, patriarchal entitlement, being punished for shining too bright, misogyny, ACES.
“I See You In Me” is about a similar thing but from the point of view of someone (me) growing up traumatized by male violence and gender expectations and trying to heal from that while learning/unlearning in adulthood.
I’ll let Ryan discuss what “Failing Circles” is about.
Ryan: “Failing Circles” is a somewhat biographical reflection of my now late father’s life experience, and the experience of so many like him. It reflects on the stigma and shame we carry from what life throws at us; how that is given weight based on our class or social standing, no matter how far we climb. The ending finds peace in who surrounds us at the end of our lives and where we succeeded in breaking cycles. – Ryan
Eddy: “The Doldrum Sound” is about realizing that I’m Autistic and my lifelong struggle with understanding social cues, sensory overwhelm, meltdowns, and constantly questioning my interactions with others and how I’m perceived, never really fitting in, always feeling in the way, Feeling alone in a room full of people you know.
What was the recording process like?
Ryan: With the exception of one guitar overdub, we tracked the instruments live in the same room. We settled into a pretty consistent flow of tracking every practice and writing session with the second half of our first EP. Eddy and Nick helped track vocals after the instrumentals were done, so it was a group effort. The process definitely influences the result, with mixing choices that leaned a bit on all of our influences.
How was this different from the last few releases?
Ryan: Honestly, pretty similar. I think the biggest shift has been in becoming more experimental but intentional in our vocal approach. Eddy put in a lot of work there, and it really comes across in “I See You In Me”
Eddy: I think the only other thing I’ll add is Ryan taking on lyrics and lead vocals for “Failing Circles”. He has the best vocal part during the bridge of “Bask In The Dancing Light” on our first EP, it was really cool to see a full song version of that vibe.
Ryan: Aw, thanks, Eddy ❤️
How do you find the ability to continue to grow and evolve as a band? How do you avoid things becoming stale?
Eddy: Again, I think it helps that we all are pulling from so many different directions and we’re willing to try anything that might serve the song or take us somewhere new. Nothing is off the table. I snuck the NBC jingle into the harmonics at the end of “The Doldrum Sound”.
One thing we’ve discussed at length is that most of our peers try to bang you on the head with their transitions, making it as unexpected and violent as possible, like a jump scare. We made a conscious effort early on to make our transitions subtle, not any less unsuspecting, but we liked the idea of leading people down an unexpected path and seeing how long it took for them to notice.
You’ve furthered yourselves into post-punk/new wave territory, and away from screamo. But that change feels so natural since you’ve always had hints of it on earlier releases.
Eddy: Like you said, it’s always been there. Even the first notes of “Erase Me” hint at that shimmery, delay heavy Robert Smith thing. “I See You In Me” is the 8th song we ever wrote, the 9th song we ever wrote (not out yet) is two and a half minutes of like a New Order instrumental and then goes into a d-beat crust thing. I think screamo/post-hardcore will always be a part of what we do, the same way post-punk/new wave will always be in the DNA, we just switched the proportions up for this release. If you scream all the time does it retain its meaning? I think it’s interesting how much genre ends up being defined by emotional restrictions. We want to be able to freely express ourselves authentically, regardless of expectation, doesn’t everybody want that?
What’s next for the band?
Eddy: We have our release show coming up this Friday in Cleveland at The Brownhoist, CDs are on the way. Hope to play a couple out of town shows and book a few local shows this year. We really want to start implementing more community resources and efforts into our shows, whether it be a pot-luck, a resource fair, activist education, combining events with visual artists. We don’t get to do this all the time, so we want to make it feel like it’s a part of something greater than just a band playing in front of people, we want to make it count.
We also have another batch of songs we’re chipping away at, but we know better now than to say “big things coming soon”, we’ll take our time to do it right, it means too much to us not to.
Closedown is on Instagram, and The Doldrum Sound can be heard here.
