Anndy Negative Interview

You recently released a song titled “When We Were Young,” which has gotten quite a lot of buzz recently. What’s that particular song about? 

Anndy: It’s all about nostalgia. That’s the whole thing. I wanted to write a song that was really nostalgic to when I was getting into music, which is like 2003-2004, based off the bands that got me into it. That’s the whole thing – being nostalgic as a person in their 30s about the music that got me into making music. I kind of used a lot of lyricisms and quotes from when I was a little kid in grade school, like “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars,” and the “Hang in there!’ cat… just stuff that was on the walls in grade school. I took a lot of those quotes and turned them into lyrics. It’s just a nostalgia bomb. Total nostalgia.

Your YouTube and TikTok channels have a lot of content about recording and production. Does your knowledge about this help you as a songwriter and musician, or vice versa? If so, how? 

Anndy: I think it helps. I’ve been doing my own self-production for a long time. I learned how to do it back in 2007, and I went to school for it, and I’ve just been kind of doing it myself since then and occasionally working with people when I want to learn more or get outside hands and stuff. Having the ability to sit down and make my own music at my own whim has been pretty great for me because it saves a lot of money, saves a lot of time, and I don’t really have to answer to anybody. As an artist, it’s kind of nice. It definitely helps me a lot, I think, as a songwriter.

Speaking of TikTok, how has that app impacted your career as a musician, especially with this new song?

Anndy: It’s turning into a huge thing right now, which is really, really crazy. I’ve been on the app for about two years with basically no real traction, but that’s fine, that’s pretty standard fare for being a musician on social media. Then all of a sudden, something catches people’s attention, and then people will start paying attention to you. This one has been a lot of negativity towards the song. It’s what’s pushing the song forward so much. I try to find the good in bad things all the time. So, people don’t like it, and they talk about it, and that pushes it out further so the people that do like it get a chance to find it – people who wouldn’t have found it before. I’m very much of the mindset that polarization is a really powerful thing when it comes to creating art. Having people either really love it or really hate it is better than people not caring or just feeling like, “eh, it’s fine.” I’d rather be on either end of those things than in the middle. So, for me, polarization is great because people hate it, so people love it. That’s just what I’m seeing anyway.

You’ve dropped a couple of albums, but lately, you’ve been primarily releasing singles. Is that your plan for your releases in the near future? What sort of impact do you think singles will have on the music industry? Do you think they will become the leading release format? 

Anndy: I love this question. I’ve been doing music for a long time, but the first Anndy Negative release was a gapless, punk rock opera album, which was a lot of work/ It was an unreasonable amount of work to do. I did a lot of promotion and then it was over. I was like “Now what? I’ve got to write another album?” So, I started focusing on singles, because I could do one, put it out, spend a couple of months really just pushing it as hard as possible, and making some cool content, and then I didn’t feel like I was like, “Now, what next?” as much. There’s another song next, one at a time. I feel that now, it makes a lot more sense to focus on that kind of release strategy. You put out an album, it’s got, say, ten songs on it. You’ve got your singles from the album, maybe there are three of them, that get a lot of attention – one before, one during, and one after. Then there are those other seven or eight songs on the album that maybe people literally never hear; they never really get a fair crack. You never know if maybe some of those songs are better or will connect with people in a different way than the ones that you think are the best ones. When you release singles, every single song has a chance.

In addition to writing music, you also write novels. Is there any correlation between your music and the storylines in your books?

Anndy: Yeah, for sure. So, I was talking about that gapless punk rock opera that I did. I did a novelization of that a couple years later, just because I liked the story I’d written, but I didn’t feel like an opera was the best way to tell it. I felt like there was a lot left on the table, so I just wrote it. Since then, now I’ve just been writing short stories – short horror and stuff – more for fun and interest than anything [else].

So, would you say the album was a concept album, then?

Anndy: For sure, one hundred percent a concept album, yeah.

I guess you had that storyline in mind when you were writing everything?

Anndy: Oh, yeah. It’s very narrative. It’s a character going through the hero’s journey, ups and downs, dealing with a lot of problems. Stuff gets worse and worse for them and they have to try and struggle through.

So I assume that the tracklist is in a very specific order for that reason.

Anndy: Yeah. I wrote it all to be more of a concerto or symphony kind of thing because it’s one piece of music that’s about twenty minutes long. I released it so it’s broken up in a way where you can skip songs, but then at the end, you can listen to the entire thing as just one twenty-minute long piece of music with no gaps in it. Every song leads into the next one. There are motifs that repeat and change as the story goes on and stuff like that. I was trying really hard to do the hardest thing I could musically.

Are there any books you’ve read that have inspired any of your creative projects, whether that be your writing or music? 

Anndy: Absolutely. Books are probably one of the biggest inspirations for me outside of other music artists I find. I read a lot. My bookshelf over there is full of stuff. I try to read a little bit of everything, but there’s a book by Keith Buckley, who is the vocalist for Every Time I Die, called Scale, that I was really influenced by. 1984 is a book that really influenced me, and just so many others. It’s hard to pick and choose, but those are just a couple of my favorites. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett in that it’s a lot of satire and making fun of storytelling, and I liked that idea. I like when authors can poke fun at what we’re doing, and I really liked the concept.

I’m curious about the correlation between maybe the stuff you read and your work, whether that’s your actual novel writing, or music, or both because I know that sometimes, whatever media you might be consuming could inspire something you’re currently working on or about to work on.

Anndy: Around Halloween time last year, I lost my Goosebumps book collection from when I was younger, but I went to the thrift store and found a bunch, so I bought them for fifty cents or whatever. So, I read a bunch of Goosebumps books, which is probably what kickstarted that nostalgia thing in my head. I read a lot of things from when I was a kid, and maybe that was a big part of why I’m on this little nostalgia kick for this song specifically. I started thinking about the things that I was stoked on when I was younger, and then was like, “You know what? I should write a song about how being old and being young are… I don’t know… similar through nostalgia glasses.”

Circling back to music – what can people expect from future material? Will it sound similar to “When We Were Young,” one of your previous releases, or something totally different? 

Anndy: I have pretty much my year’s worth of songs just about done at this point, which is the nice thing about a single release. You can kind of batch stuff, and you’ve got your entire year’s worth kind of sorted out. It’s going to be a lot of upbeat punk rock/pop-punk with a little bit of that theatrical emo influence. I feel like there will be a fair amount of positivity in it, a lot of satire, because that’s a big part of my life, poking fun at the thing that I’m doing. Hopefully, just a lot of fun, that’s really what I’m going for. I feel like what has been kind of “in” for the past six months to a year is darker, and I totally get it, I can one hundred percent connect with that. I wanted to go [in] the opposite direction. Art is doing this thing where it’s very dark and depressing right now, and I want to just go the total opposite. When things are happy, I go dark. When things are dark, I go happy.

Anndy Negative’s latest single, “When We Were Young,” is available now. Listen to the track here:

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Luke Seymoup Interview

It’s been 5 years since your first album. What have you learned about songwriting, composing, or just being a musician in general in the last five years? What knowledge did you take with you going into the process for Tales Of Suburban Angst? 

Luke: I think since the first album, the biggest thing has just been tightening up the screws a lot. Not to say that things were loose on that first album – I’m really proud of it – but going into this one, I wanted to tighten up arrangements and make sure there were a lot of spots where the band really hit together. The first album was a little more diverse – there’s alt-country, punk, and singer-songwriter and power pop songs on it. With this one, I wanted to do it song by song and have that vision for the whole album, taking those elements and combining them into each song altogether to make it a cohesive sound and make it an album where, while each song was distinct, you’d know what record each song has come from. Obviously, with the pandemic and things, I’ve had a little more time to tweak things in the studio.

You’ve said that the album combines power pop and punk – who were the biggest influences for this album in those genres specifically? 

Luke: Probably my two biggest songwriting influences of all time are Alkaline Trio – my absolute favorite punk band – and The Lemonheads. I think that Evan Dando is just a genius. There’s a way that he can write a pop hook and a catchy song and make it rock, and many people can do it, but he just does it in a very special way. Those two are probably the biggest influences, but I listen to a lot of stuff, like Against Me!, The Gaslight Anthem… I’m a huge Ramones fan. During the recording of this album, I was listening to a lot of 80s Ramones, where they moved away from the bar chords and fast-paced, downstroke stuff and were playing around with a lot of synthesizers and doing more slow songs, and getting a bit more lyrical, and I really love that sound. So, that’s probably the punk side of things. In terms of the power-pop and singer-songwriter stuff, obviously the Lemonheads, but also I’ve started listening to more Fountains Of Wayne, Phantom Planet, Weezer, you know? There is something about the way those songs were arranged that makes them so memorable. Obviously, a huge influence is Crowded House, Australia’s best songwriting export. You can listen to a Crowded House record and the arrangements are absolutely perfect. I don’t think there’s ever been a more perfect pop rock band than Crowded House. 

Seeing as you’re Melbourne-based and the album is supposed to be a trip around the city’s suburbs, were there any particular locations that inspired some of these songs? If so, what locations were they, and which songs did they inspire?

Luke: Great question! There’s a song on the record called St. Kilda. For anyone who’s not from Melbourne, St. Kilda is an inner-city suburb that’s right on the bay, beachside in a city suburb. You know the way they describe Mos Eisley in Star Wars’ Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy? That’s the way I look at St. Kilda. So that song is the depiction of a night out in St. Kilda that just slowly devolves from what should have been a trip to a gig into absolute madness. I love that song and I’m really excited about it. Also, the song Maple Road – which is about the Hume Highway. Now, the Hume Highway is a big long stretch of highway. The way Australia is laid out isn’t like in the states. I know there’s a lot of places where you’ve got three or four cities in each state and it’s not that far to travel. In Australia, there’s a capital city, then nothing for nine hours, and then another capital city. When I was on tour heading up to Sydney, the Hume Highway is somewhere that I got completely lost. I was on that trip with my friend Joe and we didn’t know each other well, and he was convinced I was driving him out of the bush to murder him. So, that’s just another little quick story you’ll get on the album. I could go on and on about all the other Melbourne locales for days, but I think those are the two that are the most amusing.

Going along with that, are there any locations that you would recommend people check out if they ever visit the area? 

Luke: Look, I think when people come to visit Melbourne, they see the CBD and those inner suburbs, and that’s it and that’s great. Melbourne’s an absolutely beautiful city. If you want to see the weird stuff, it’s all out in the suburbs. Out near where I grew up, there was a place called Daisy’s. Now, Daisy’s was three things – it was a restaurant, a nightclub, and a garden supply store, and only out in the deep suburbs would you find something that bizarre. Rather than give a specific location to go and check out, all I can say is the best thing to do is trek out into the wild of Melbourne and adventure because it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but it’s also one of the strangest.

I wanted to touch on TikTok because I’ve noticed you’ve grown a bit of a following there. How has that platform impacted your career?

Luke: The whole TikTok thing kind of took off all of a sudden. A lot of the people that I’ve met through Tik Tok have kind of said the same thing. One day, I was just mucking around on there, and all of a sudden, something blew up overnight. I don’t even have a huge following – I’ve got about 5000 followers or something like that. It’s just been really strange and I will say this – it has been more overwhelmingly positive than it has been negative. You get some strange comments, I repeatedly get comments about how people don’t like the way I say “Blink 1-8-2,” and I can’t help it, I’m from Australia! I’ve got an Australian accent. It’s just been really fun. I do use it a little bit to promote my music, but I spend most of my time on there for fun. I’ll play guitar and people will say “Can you do a riff that sounds like this band?” and I’ll say “Sure!” I’ll knock it out in five minutes. Sometimes it’s accurate, and sometimes it’s not, and if it’s not accurate, you better believe people will let me know about it! I’ve met some really cool people through there. Just one example is Shakeout from Yonkers, New York. We’ve spoken a little bit and I really dig his stuff. Without TikTok, I never would have met him. It’s kind of connecting me with the punk scene in other parts of the world.

Speaking of TikTok, you just mentioned this, but there was a series of videos on the app where you teach your viewers how to write guitar parts in the style of certain bands. Do you feel like learning how to play in many different styles has helped you grow as a musician, and has that range of styles influenced the kind of music you write? 

Luke: Definitely. I think any time you learn something on guitar or whatever instrument, it’s a tool in a box, right? That’s a way that especially a lot of people in alternative genres, who maybe don’t want to sit down and learn a lot of theory, can learn. I have spent a lot of time learning theory, but I don’t always necessarily use it. I think it’s something that you need to use when necessary. I spent years learning every Alkaline Trio riff, and if you listen to my songs now, you’ll see that influence. There are songs of mine like MulderScully – that could be a Matt Skiba guitar part. You’re going to pick up the style of bands that you like as you learn their songs. You’re going to expand the repertoire of the chord shapes that you know and the way different chords fit together, how chord and key changes work, how time signatures work, and things like that… just from learning songs. I would recommend to anyone who wants to start writing music – spend a lot of time just learning songs, take the ideas you get, put them in a different order, and you’ve got something. All good music is theft, I think.

Circling back to the album – what are some of the lyrical topics on it, particularly on the tracks that weren’t singles?

Luke:  I think a big thing that runs through the album is just the idea of growing and finding your place in the world, you know? I think it’s pretty common and it’s a universal experience to grow up and find that maybe life isn’t exactly what you expected. Maybe you imagined you’d spend all your time playing music, but you do have to work a job to pay the bills, and that’s fine, that’s kind of what life is. I guess a lot of the album is processing that and trying to deal with the feelings of motivating yourself to keep going and staying positive and find where you belong in the scheme of things. Also, it’s padded out with a lot of stories of kind of bizarre experiences that I’ve had, fractured friendships as well. Of the songs that haven’t been released… track two is “Buzz Lightyear.” “Buzz Lightyear” is a song that’s kind of been in the live set for a while now and there’s a joke we’ve had with that song because it’s more of a midtempo rocker. When we were writing the rhythm for it, I was saying to the band it was the song that would get us to perform at the Australian Rules Football Grand Final. I don’t actually follow football but I just thought it was a funny joke. That song was a very important song in what the sound was going to be going forward after the first one, and it was one of the first new songs that we did. It was all about laying the ghosts of the past to rest, so to speak – letting go of the mistakes that you’ve made and the friendships that have fallen apart, and finding where you belong and a place that’s comfortable for you. The song uses a metaphor of outer space to do that, and I think it’s very indicative of what the overall feel of the album is.

What can people expect from the album when they first listen?

Luke: Is it too broad just to say a good time? Because that’s the biggest thing we wanted to do with this record. It’s nine tracks. We wanted to keep the album short and punchy. We’ve all had bands that we love that have put out an album that drags. So we recorded more than nine songs for the album, but we wanted to pick the ones that are going to keep that energy level high. While there are dark themes, serious lyrics, and some downbeat stuff on the record… we keep things very upbeat, danceable, and fun. I’d describe our sound on this record in particular as trying to make people feel good about feeling terrible. I think we accomplished that.

Luke Seymoup’s latest album, “Tales Of Suburban Angst,” is available now. Listen to the record here:

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Remarkable Recent Releases #1

There is so much great new music coming out on a daily basis, and today, Dissonants brings you the start of a brand new column called Remarkable Recent Releases, which aims to highlight some of these tracks, EPs, and albums.

Adjust The Sails “Working Man”

Adjust The Sails has been consistently releasing music throughout the course of the year, and the newest piece is a track titled “Working Man.” The lyrics tackle multiple themes, from self-improvement and not “giving in to vices” to the desire of quitting the 9-5 life to pursue other career paths to getting older and watching your friends and peers reach major life milestones. The reflective songwriting is combined with extremely catchy melodies and instrumentation to make another very memorable track.

House Parties “Tiny Rooms” (EP)

House Parties stepped foot into the scene at the beginning of this year, gradually leading up to the release of their debut EP, “Tiny Rooms.” The Texan pop-punk and easycore group bring together drop-tuned riffs and breakdowns (“Makes Sense”), infectious melodies (‘Broke,`” Tiny Rooms”), and attention-grabbing performances (“Collateral”) to create a very strong debut.

Jack Conway “Bullshit”

Continuing a string of releases, Jack Conway has released “Bullshit.” The stripped-down demo allows for the emotion to shine through (especially within the vocal performance during the chorus). Sophisticated piano and guitar leads join a dreamy vocal performance and heartfelt lyrics (“I tell myself lies so I don’t feel any pain”) to make a simple, yet powerful track.

Jordan Coffey “Mean Girls”

Hailing from Maine is metal musician Jordan Coffey, who recently dropped her latest single, “Mean Girls.” With lyrics like “so keep walking away with your head down, just in case you forgot which one of us wears the crown,” the track serves as a middle finger to bullies, haters, and anyone else who’s ever tried to tear you down. The verses are much more aggressive, while the massive chorus is much more melodic, and the performances throughout the song make it even more empowering.

K4YLEE “FADED MEMORY”

K4YLEE impressed me with her new single, “FADED MEMORY.” The softer and more minimalistic verses prepare for the anthemic choruses that follow, with an emotion-filled vocal performance sung over the line “what happened to the way we used to be?.” Elements of pop and rock are seamlessly tied together to create a phenomenal single overall.

One Flew West “Holes In My Jeans”

Beloved Colorado locals One Flew West are back with another new track, “Holes In My Jeans.” The song is the second single from their forthcoming debut album, “The Blur,” which will be released on March 25th, 2022 (pre-order here). Alongside their previous single “The Blur,” this track also contains the irresistibly catchy hooks that the band is known for, and sets a strong precedent for the rest of the record.

Promise Game “Sleeping Weather”

New Hampshire-based band Promise Game has been consistently evolving their sound with each release they’ve put out this year, and their new single “Sleeping Weather” is no different in that regard. The darker composition in the verses and choruses focus on elements of emo, alternative rock, and post-hardcore, while the extremely energetic instrumentals and captivating vocals in the bridge throw bits and pieces of pop-punk into the mix, and listeners can also expect to hear unforgettable synth leads throughout the entire track.

Stand Atlantic “molotov [OK]”

Following the release of “deathwish” earlier on in 2021, Australian pop-punk legends Stand Atlantic are continuing to get a little bit experimental with their sound through their latest single, “molotov [OK].” The raw and slightly more aggressive vocal tone and accelerated instrumentation showcase a heavier side to the band’s sound, and the main hook will have listeners shouting along.

Track Review: “Apology Tour Of The Morning” by Stray The Course

Featured Image Credit: Elias Armao | Dogged Line Design Supply

Following a duology of tracks in 2020, Stray The Course dropped “Walk Away” in March of this year. Several months after that release, the band are continuing that pattern of releasing a string of singles with their latest one, “Apology Tour Of The Morning.”

Furious, fast paced guitars and drums lead the intro, and the tempo only speeds up during the verses. The song gradually leads up to its irresistible chorus, containing melodies guaranteed to stick in the listener’s head, and the bass is really prominent within that section, as well as during the second verse that follows. The vocals are highlighted a lot during the bridge, and while the instrumentals initially take a step back during that part of the song, they make a triumphant return during the song’s huge final chorus, which brings some memorable guitar and bass riffs to the table. Lyrically, the song is told from the perspective of someone waking up after drinking at a party the night before. The verses show this person recounting the events of the evening, while the chorus depicts the regret that person feels after realizing the damage done before they give their “apology tour,” as the title hints at.

In Conclusion…

With the dynamic instrumentals, emotive vocals, and catchy melodies,  “Apology Tour Of The Morning” is the intersection of the punk and pop-punk influences within Stray The Course’s music and shows them continuing to refine their sound.

“Apology Tour Of The Morning” is available now. Listen to the track here:

Track Review: “Social Meteor” by Guardrail

Featured Image Credit: Phil Goode & Doug Brand

Back in 2020, Guardrail released their excellent EP “Yikes.” To follow it up, the band have surprised fans with a brand new single, titled “Social Meteor.”

The song opens up with memorable riffs quickly that show the pop-punk & easycore influences found within the band’s music. Alongside the fast-paced drums and bass, the guitars bring copious amounts of energy to the track. The vocals deliver a captivating performance once they come in, and the harmonies only add onto that. That chorus brings instrumentals as catchy as the melodies, and those instrumentals prepare for the bridge, which cycles back and forth between melodic vocals with more beautiful harmonies and shouted vocals that convey the frustration displayed in the song’s lyrics. Lyrically, the song discusses how people rely on popularity and fame on social media for validation and satisfaction, and great examples of this are lines like “Once the validation fades, type up another escapade / Is this outer space or cyberspace?” and “Congratulations on all your success, you’re Mr. Popularity / I never knew you had so many friends / Illusions of prosperity.”

In Conclusion…

With “Social Meteor,” Guardrail have returned with a remarkable track that sparks an important conversation through clever lyrics and appealing composition.

“Social Meteor” is available now. Listen to the track here: