Punk rock band, Old Currents, has been preparing for the release of their upcoming album The Glory, The Defeat. Not only did they recently release new single, “No Signs Of Life”, they took the time to sit down with us at BareBones Ent to chat. Take a stroll below and see what all Old Currents had to say when they talked with BareBones Ent.
BBE: What do you feel it is about Old Currents that makes your band special?
Jake: I think it’s the fact we’re a band of people who’ve grown up together. I’ve been friends with Joe and Greg for over 15 years now, and even though we’ve only known Ryan for only a few years, he fits right in. I think people can see that chemistry in our shows and hear it on our record. Not every band can say they’ve been friends since middle school, but we can. We didn’t just grow up together, we became musicians together.
BBE: How long do you feel it took you to really develop the sound that you wanted as a band?
Jake: It took years to figure out who we are. Every band and every song I wrote, previous to The Glory, The Defeat, was trying to live up to the standard another band set, which is like going school in a way. I think for the band, this is the first album that is truly our own. Of course, our influences will still show through, as I think that’s a part of songwriting, but the only standard we tried to live up to for this album was one we set for ourselves.
BBE: You recently released the song “No Signs of Life”, which is just fantastic. We absolutely love the song. What is the story behind the song?
Jake: One of our best friends who we grew up with dropped everything, packed up, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in screenwriting. While I’ve heard stories of people doing stuff like that, I’ve never actually known someone who did it. So after a conversation me and my friend had after he moved out to California, I wrote this song about him and the guts it took to do something that life changing in the name of a dream.
BBE: How did the song come together?
Jake: Like with 99% of Old Currents songs, Joe or I write the chord progression, lyrics, and melody separately, then bring the skeleton of the song to the band. Everybody adds their part, critiques each other and we refine over and over until the song is ready to record. I hesitate to say finished, because as long as it’s being played live, it’s never truly finished in my opinion. It’s constantly evolving.
BBE: How have fans reacted to the song?
Jake: To this point everybody we showed it to had nothing but great things to say, which feels amazing. But most importantly, our friend who the song is about thinks so too. I just can’t wait for the world to hear it!
BBE: This song is off of your upcoming album, The Glory, The Defeat, which we are pumped to hear. How long have you been working on this album?
Jake: We’ve been working on it since December 2nd, 2017, the day after our first album, Three Chords & the Truth came out. We never stop writing and practicing. We started the recording process in January of 2020, and 2 years later we’re finally able to show everybody what we’re so excited about.
BBE: Did you face any challenges in creating this album?
Jake: Everything went 100% smooth from start to finish, pandemic notwithstanding. That being said, we used that down time to our advantage to really assess everything we recorded to that point, which led to us going back and rerecording a bunch of stuff. It delayed the release timeline by probably a year, but strictly in regards to this album, it was for the better.
BBE: What information can you give us about the album?
Jake: It’s 12 songs that all come from different backgrounds. I love the idea of bands like Lucero, who can go in a million different sonic directions, but at the end of the day they’re all unmistakably Lucero songs and that’s one thing we wanted to do on this album. We have the straight forward punk rock influenced songs, but then we scale it back with some acoustic guitar and pedal steel, played by our friend Whit Wright, as well as some 50s/60s rock n roll and ska influenced songs. We all listen to different music, and we want our music to reflect that.
BBE: How hard is it for you to sit on new music and not be able to put it out there?
Jake: It sucked. No way to sugar coat it. It almost felt like people didn’t believe we had a new album recorded. But we’re finally at a point where we’re comfortable showing everybody, and I’m so happy to finally release this album.
BBE: What is the best way for fans to keep up with your releases and connect with you?
Jake: We’re most active on Instagram. We use Facebook, Youtube and Twitter too, all handles @oldcurrents. We’re working on a website and webstore as we speak too. Or heck, just call me up and I’ll talk your ear off about music!
BBE: Anything else you would like to add?
Jake: I just want to express the deepest of gratitude to everybody who lent us their musical talents on this album. Chirs Badami who recorded, mixed, mastered and produced it. Craig Cirinelli, Whit Wright, Matt Pasquinnucci, Nicole Swan, Ethan Harris, Chris Badami (again) all played instruments or sang on this album. And Craig Cirinelli aka HouseWithoutWalls Design who did all the art for it as well. Thank you guys for everything.
