With not only the arrival of a new album, One Million Suburban Sunsets but also the first release on the band’s own record label, Karma Cool Records, I caught up with front man Jim Styring to find out what has been going on in the It’s Karma It’s Cool world since we last spoke.
When we last spoke, nearer the start of the year, you were starting to tease out a few of the singles from the new album, “Crashability,” I think. What’s been happening since then?
Hi Dave, yes, we’ve released three singles from the album, ‘Crashability,’ ‘21st Century Meds,’ and ‘Goliath.’ We wanted to give a taste of what to expect. I’m hoping we’ve surprised a few people. We’ve never been a band to just repeat ourselves. This album makes a definite statement.
And with One Million Suburban Sunsets about to drop, what can we expect from it?
A record full of loud guitars, big choruses, and a punk rock attitude.
The album title is quite evocative in itself. Are there any themes or conversations being tackled with the album?
Although it’s certainly not a concept album, there are themes that link the songs. It’s about living in this modern world and what it means to be alive in the 21st Century. It’s a more focused album than our previous record, ‘Thrift Store Troubadours’; it’s more direct. The songs deal with real life and real people, so it hits harder and shouts louder. We felt it was time to write about the real world.
Even with the non-singles, the band seems to have the ability to write hooky, accessible songs. Not that I’m asking you to give any secrets away, but is there a conscious decision to write music that is widely accessible?
We don’t really write to please anyone but ourselves. You have to trust your own judgment as a band. If you try writing to please everyone else, you end up pleasing no one. But we did want these songs to be accessible and inclusive, ‘we’re all in this together’ kind of thing. The songs came quite quickly, we had several productive writing sessions, and the album started taking shape early on in the process. We wanted an anthemic quality to the whole record, and I think we achieved that.
The album brilliantly wanders between the Beatle-esque sound of “Explosions” and the more contemporary rock of “21st Century Meds.” Is there a distinct core band sound, or do songs find their own path?
There’s always going to be that sense of melody that runs through our albums, and there’ll always be the big choruses. But the songs kind of go where they need to go, although we knew we wanted ‘One Million Suburban Sunsets’ to be our ‘guitar’ album; we wanted to make an unapologetic rock record. Martyn put the acoustic guitars away for this one.
Is there a set way of working, a rough process that you find yourself following, or do the songs come together in different ways each time?
Martyn and Mikey will send over guitar ideas, and I’ll listen through and work on the ones that grab me. They never seemed short of inspiration for this album, and I couldn’t wait to hear what they would send me next. We then go into the studio with Adam and work on the song arrangements together.
Are there any shows to support the album? If so, where are you looking forward to playing?
We’re going to let people hear the album for a while before we announce live dates. We like the crowd (The Karma Army) to be able to sing along with us, so we’ll give them time to learn the tracks.
As always, lastly, once the album is out and the songs added to the band’s rich musical canon, what does the future look like?
As any band or songwriter will tell you, you never stop writing. And we’ll be getting out on the road to play the album for people. These songs sound huge live.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, and best of luck with the new album and everything else that you have in the works.
