There’s a couple different things going on… And um, not that him and I weren’t able to get a couple things done that I like, but like after that it kind of fell apart, so rather than rewrite the record, we thought it would be better to add that into the mix and keep running with it. So the record kind of ran with that idea and it was definitely inspired a lot by the actual process of trying to write the album which, at least the first, was a pretty unequivocal disaster, like uh, trying to record with Eric, was pretty much a disaster and then he left so we weren’t even able to do that. A lot of the times the weirdest stories that you’d never believe are the ones that are completely based in reality, and um, kind of vice versa. Ray: Um, there’s like a couple things going on I guess, there’s like two, three very loose narratives going on on the record, I said before, it’s very structured like the way you hear urban legends, told about from people over and over and over, growing up with people and you hear stories and you never know which ones end up being true. What story did you want to tell through this album and production and playing it, I know that’s a really collaborative process with you guys.
The next one we’re doing is the opposite, it’s all structure. Ray: Yeah, it was, a lot of the old stuff was written like me, at home bored, and like up all night, or like me and our drummer at the time, Eric, or like, sometimes you in the mix, or sometimes Caroline occasionally just like at one of our houses, and this one was, uh, there was no like rule to it, like people could send things in, Spencer was sending horns, me and Sean were doing things at his house, or at the studio bringing people in like Max doing trumpets, umm, there wasn’t any real like, structure to the way it was getting done, which I mean, like was good. It was written largely, just smoking a lot of weed, and…Īlec Simke: Also a lot more collaborators… Ray: Umm, all the past albums were written while strung out on heroin, as the person writing all the songs, and this one wasn’t, which is pretty nice. There’s definitely a little bit of a different feel to this album than in your past releases, what’s behind that shift? I would fuckin kill for a watermelon right now, that would be so refreshing. Ray: It’s like the opposite of a big middle finger, whatever the opposite thing of that is. Ray: … But this one’s pushing it at, this one just pushes past that. Toohey: It’s definitely a culmination I feel like, of Teen Suicide as a project, it’s always been really sort of like, not tied down to any particular genre, and it’s kind of been about a large degree of exploration of that, it just kind of takes that theme and pushes it to a whole other level of that just being bounded by, like all Teen Suicide I guess is sort of like bounded by kind of a loose… Ray: without a doubt, it kind of does everything there is to do there John Toohey: Um I think it’s a hell of a way to leave the moniker Sam Ray: I feel good about it, how about y’all?
This is the last album that you’ll be releasing as Teen Suicide how do you feel about it being the last thing that you’ll release under that name? Tiny Mix Tapes chatted with the band during their current tour about a looming band-name change, being signed to Run For Cover Records, and how their new 26-track album is like buying a big watermelon. The current lineup (Ray, Alec Simke, John Toohey, and Sean Mercer) also recently released a brand new record, It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot. The band recently signed to Run For Cover Records and re-released previous albums I Will Be My Own Hell Because There is a Devil Inside My Body, DC Snuff Film, and Waste Yrself on vinyl and cassette at the end of last year. With a sound commonly classified as lofi (though spanning across multiple genres and styles) and songs with themes of death, drug addiction, depression, and dropping out of school to start your dream job as the grim reaper, just to name a few, Teen Suicide have garnered a steady following over the years. Teen Suicide, led by Sam Ray, have been releasing music with various lineups somewhat officially since 2011.