Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain and Aaron Gillespie open up on the making of their newest album ‘The Place After This One’, set for launch on March 28 by way of MNRK Heavy.
Plus, we’ve teamed up with the band to deliver you this world unique purple and gold vinyl of the album, restricted to simply 150 copies.
Out there for supply worldwide, order yours now at SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV
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“Have you ever guys seen ‘A Full Unknown’?”
Aaron Gillespie posing this query to his bandmate Spencer Chamberlain and Rock Sound could appear a bit out of pocket on the floor when discussing Underøath‘s new album ‘The Place After This One’. However for these, like Rock Sound, who’ve seen Timothée Chalamet’s unimaginable portrayal of Bob Dylan‘s early years of success, it makes excellent sense.
The movie focuses on Dylan throughout the 60s, turning into the brand new face of folks music in an America at a time of big change while additionally endeavouring to not be pinned down by a selected anticipated sound. It culminates in his notorious efficiency on the Newport Folks Pageant in 1965, the place quite than taking to the stage with simply his acoustic and harmonica, he and his band plugged in and rattled by 4 songs absolutely electrical from his then-upcoming album ‘Freeway 61 Revisited’, sending shockwaves by the group earlier than them and the organisers who had begged him to not.
For Aaron, with the best way Underøath has grown over time – the successes, the expectations, the fallouts, the reunions – he sees a lot of how his band approaches the creation of artwork in what Dylan did that day.
“We’ve at all times been towing that highway slightly bit. We have now at all times made the album that’s slightly scary. Dylan needed to make that report, and he needed to exit and carry out it at an acoustic-only competition and nearly get carried off the stage. That’s the place we stay, too.”
“You simply carry on making music that you simply care about,” Spencer provides, now clear on the course his buddy was going. “Individuals will come and go; you should have good years and dangerous years. That’s simply life. It’s regular. You simply have to have the ability to trip the wave with the place tradition goes, and that’s what we’ve at all times strived to do.”
A lot of that’s mirrored in how ‘The Place After This One’ seems like nobody else however Underøath. It’s frantic, bludgeoning, charming, weak, bizarre, and, greater than something, pressing. It’s exactly what some individuals will wish to hear from the band. It’s additionally completely nothing like what others need them to be, and that’s a fucking unbelievable place to be over 20 years into your profession. Unafraid and unbridled, it’s a report that they may solely make proper right here and proper now, they usually couldn’t be prouder to have reached this place.
“We solely know easy methods to do issues a sure means, and that means is our means,” Aaron smiles. “What meaning is that we make regardless of the fuck we wish. If it is smart to individuals, that’s a blessing; if it doesn’t, that’s okay, too. However I do assume doing issues that means is the explanation we’re nonetheless right here.”
To uncover extra about their practices, Rock Sound chatted by each facet of ‘The Place After This One’ with the pair and found what it means to easily not give a fuck.
THE SOUND
There are moments on ‘The Place After This One’ that sound like a panic assault, just like the guttural chaos that holds opener ‘Era No Give up’ in place. There are others that ship shivers coursing up your backbone just like the heavy-hitting ‘Survivor’s Guilt’ and events that really feel like a shadowy hand gripping your shoulder, just like the soul-searching grit of ‘Cannibal’. Creating such an intense, intricate and intoxicating compound for what Underøath imagine heavy music ought to be in 2025 doesn’t come with out loads of legwork. It additionally comes from every particular person member of the band not truly listening to a lot heavy music outdoors of their roles within the band. However the result’s all of the extra fascinating, because the chase of connecting the dots from every of their separate passions, seeing the place the center assembly level will fall, is endlessly extra thrilling than the catch.
“The rationale Underøath works is as a result of the best way Tim would have completed a tune is completely different from how I might have completed a tune,” Spencer explains. “That’s additionally completely different from how Aaron would have completed the tune, which can also be completely different from how Chris would have completed the tune. Everybody’s style is so broad and on the market; this small area that we land on retains Underøath sounding like Underøath and serving to us progress ahead. The longer we do that, the extra our tastes change and the extra we discover ways to push and pull one another.”
It’s asking one another continually, “What will we wish to hear once we hearken to heavy music?” that retains issues in steadiness. Being a central cog within the scene machine for 2 and a half a long time, they’ve seen and heard all of it even after they weren’t strictly on the management board. Watching tendencies come and go and seeing bands shapeshift to chase the algorithm has seen them endeavouring by no means to fall into the identical traps, even when, at occasions, listeners assume they’ve. However seeing how heavy music is having a well-deserved second within the highlight proper now and seeing that the bands on the reducing fringe of the tradition are those crafting their very own lane has solely bolstered Spencer and Aaron’s perception that marching to your personal beat is the one means.
“Throughout COVID, each rapper was doing pop-punk,” Aaron laughs. “Ten years earlier than that, it was no matter else. Stuff is simply cyclical. Issues simply cycle round, and proper now, it’s heavy music’s time, which is cool. For those who, as a band, stick at it, it would proceed to go. For those who love what you’re doing, you will be okay with that. For those who don’t love what you’re doing and also you’re chasing the industrial facet, your type will change time and again relying on what is occurring. There’s nothing improper with that, nevertheless it’s not for us.”
THE COLLABORATORS
When it got here to manufacturing duties, the band turned to an acquaintance of Aaron within the type of Danen Rector. With the likes of Grayscale, Boys like Women and Charlotte Sands in his portfolio, his experience in making an infectious pop hook is obvious to see. The periods for the album’s recording with Danen passed off in a cabin up within the beautiful environment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the contemporary air and pure splendour enjoying an enormous half in making the experiments and sonic expeditions that little bit extra tranquil and grandiose. And although Spencer admits that Danen was excellent in his function, turning into a sixth band member all through the method, he doesn’t level to his involvement as the primary cause for issues falling into place like they did. He doesn’t level to the environment they dedicated it to tape, both. These are issues put in place of their pursuit of making one thing that causes goosebumps. Of eager to really feel one thing. However the cause that they had been capable of develop that was due to the place that the band had been in as an entire. Collaboration, be that with others or with one another, solely creates gold while you’re in the precise spot, and that’s the place Underøath are actually.
“Each report we’ve completed has been the most effective illustration of us at that second in time,” he remarks. “ our profession, the band being in a great place and catching us making that greatest illustration of us on the proper time is the place you get issues which can be particular. ‘Outline The Nice Line’ and this album, the explanation they really feel much like me is as a result of we had been in these good spots in our private lives and with one another.”
“I feel that while you’re making music, it ought to put you out of your self slightly bit. It ought to be important to you. It ought to make you’re feeling one thing,” Aaron provides. “That’s what we try to make, and that’s the place the cabin and Danen is available in. I feel that we actually try to arrange these conditions. For us, that has at all times been the factor. Creating that and doing issues our means and creating our personal means. Any music could make you try this.”
THE LYRICS
The truth that the band are in such a great place additionally pertains to how they’re writing lyrics this time round. Throughout each different album course of, they’ve been in the course of the storm quite than wanting again on it. And when the rain is soaking you to the pores and skin, and it looks as if there is no such thing as a finish in sight, your notion of issues will likely be completely different. And that has been clear all through the Underøath story.
2004’s ‘They’re Solely Chasing Security’ was a band determining who they needed to be, and 2006’s ‘Outline The Nice Line’ was a inventive response to the strain of what had come earlier than. 2008’s ‘Misplaced In The Sound Of Separation’ noticed them falling aside, and 2010’s ‘Ø (Disambiguation)’ was created off the again of shattering into items. 2018’s ‘Erase Me’ was returning with no thought who they had been anymore, and 2022’s ‘Voyeurist’ was a report made to show a degree. Completely different circumstances at completely different occasions however the identical sense of attempting to tread water because the flood swells round them. Being out the opposite aspect has supplied a lot needed readability for Spencer and Aaron, they usually know that ‘The Place After This One’ has considerably benefitted from that.
“Each report has been us writing concerning the shit while we’re nonetheless drowning in it,” Spencer reiterates. “This time, every little thing that we’re talking on, we’re doing when we’ve returned to shore. We fucking made it, now let’s speak about it. That was a extra lovely spot to jot down from than I’ve ever been capable of do.”
“If you’re writing at it from the opposite aspect, you possibly can write about it inside the entire narrative as properly,” Aaron factors out. “You bear in mind the place the storm began and the place it ended and every little thing that occurred within the center. I feel that’s an awesome place to jot down from. It’s an odd place however lovely songs come out of that.”
Although there are some speedy musings on what every member has skilled the previous few years baked into these songs, the longer view of the storm can also be the main target right here. The relationships – each private {and professional} – which were shattered and repaired all through these final twenty years. The band’s notion of religion, a component of Underøath that has lengthy outlined them, for higher or for worse, and the way they really feel completely different to the children they had been trying to find solace in scripture. Such uncooked vulnerability and honesty within the face of issues they haven’t been capable of talk about earlier than has additionally allowed Spencer and Aaron to take again possession of their story. Utilizing the readability they now should set the report straight and present that issues are completely different is okay. Change is sweet and expressing that as a lot as attainable is essential.
“If you’re nonetheless in the course of that storm, perhaps you’re not able to admit all of it,” Spencer builds. “I feel that’s why this album feels so pissed off. It’s actually fucking offended, and it comes from my thoughts being clear. That’s from not being on medicine or being riddled with anxiousness or in the course of these fucked up conditions. Now you can go, ‘That was fucked up, fuck that’. It’s the primary time you possibly can say it with an open thoughts.”
“I don’t assume anyone makes artwork with the intention of it to not be heard,” Aaron provides. “However this album, for the primary time in a very long time, us ending it seems like the largest success to me. The issues that it says and the issues that it means, it feels important. And that’s the place the success lies.”
THE TITLE AND ARTWORK
Regardless of approaching issues with that clearer thoughts, that doesn’t make going over such uncooked topics any simpler. It doesn’t make taking a look at what comes subsequent any clearer, both. You simply should set your self alight and run into the unknown, hoping that one thing past all this may extinguish you.
That’s the place the title of this assortment comes into play. The world doesn’t cease spinning simply due to what you’re going by. Life doesn’t decelerate to offer you an opportunity to stand up to hurry. So, you could have religion that no matter is across the nook is there. The Underøath story boils right down to continually feeling like there was one thing nonetheless to return by each excessive and each low. So having ‘The Place After This One’ umbrella these aggressive, angular, audacious songs feels becoming. The exorcisms and expressions that happen on all of it filter again round to the assumption that there’s something nonetheless to return. After all, there is a component of existentialism to that, the heaven and hell, which is mirrored within the discussions of religion inside these songs, however greater than something, it’s the place we’re on this mortal plain.
“We’ve been a band a very long time,” Aaron muses. “We’ve made loads of stuff, we’ve made loads of errors, we’ve had loads of successes, and it’s all from asking, ‘What’s subsequent’? And are we okay hanging on for that trip? For a very long time, it was asking, ‘Why aren’t we like this? Why aren’t we this band? Why not us?’ For the primary time in our profession, I don’t give a shit about any of that. After we get on stage, I do know what we do and what it would really feel like. It’s at all times going to be particular as a result of it’s us.”
THE FUTURE
The final body of ‘A Full Unknown’ is an easy however efficient one. It’s Dylan on his bike, using to God is aware of the place and slowing however certainly getting quicker, his give attention to no matter is forward of him unwavering. The fact is that after the film’s occasions, ‘Freeway 61 Revisited’ turned probably the most influential and best-selling albums of all time. However in that second, of letting the wind movement by his hair as he rides into regardless of the world has for him, freedom is all on his thoughts.
Now, Aaron is certain to reiterate that he’s not evaluating what Underøath have completed and can do to the profession of Bob Dylan, however that freedom and that pleasure of not understanding what’s coming subsequent is one thing that basically lingers inside him about the place the band discover themselves now. It’s thrilling however scary, gratifying however demanding. Greater than something, it’s human, and after using the wave, each ebb and movement, for so long as they’ve, to have that feeling at their disposal is a present that can not be purchased. Greater than that, Underøath really feel part of a motion as soon as extra. A member of a gaggle of bands which can be doing issues the best way that they see match. And the extra bands that be part of them, the stronger this scene will turn out to be.
“You’ve got all these bands swinging again by and doing one thing completely different,” Aaron smiles. “Bands are doing issues I’ve by no means heard earlier than, and persons are doing regardless of the fuck they need once more. And we’ll miss with information and miss with songs, however then we win once more, and that’s what we’ll carry on doing.”
“You do what’s best for you,” Spencer provides in conclusion. “That’s the place the largest successes are. You may’t have an explosion into an entire new world and mind-set with out pushing in that means.”
