Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
Brooklyn’s Common Sage has never sounded better. Their third full-length, Closer To;, is out at the end of the week, and it’s their most expansive and developed album yet. At various points throughout the album, it calls back to their Equal Vision forebears Armor for Sleep (particularly single “Vehicles“), their explicit influences Balance & Composure, or Sainthood Reps (who feature on “Bulrushes”), but it all comes together to feel like Common Sage’s own. It’s a darker, more textured affair than their explosive 2021 album It Lives and It Breathes and worlds away from the PNW indie rock of their earliest releases. Tracks like the moody “Come Undone” and the tense, tempestuous “Patient & Kind” feel like the sorts of songs Common Sage has been gesturing towards for years and has only recently worked up the confident to attempt.
It’s an excellent listen and a huge step forward for the post-hardcore quartet. We spoke to frontman Julian Rosen about the writing of Closer To;, linking up with so many of his influences, and some of his paranormal experiences.
The album is out Friday. How are you feeling?
I don’t know how I feel. I feel fine. It’s been so long. It’s been in the works for so long that it doesn’t feel as exciting as two years ago, but it’s good.
Earlier this year you put out the Nostos | Algos EP. Were those songs originally part of these sessions?
It’s all the same sessions. We recorded, like, fifteen songs altogether–one we’re saving for a rainy day, three of them are on the EP, and two we mashed together for one of the songs on the album.
How did you decide which songs would be on which release?
We put out the song with Jason Gleason the week we were going on tour with Further Seems Forever. We were stoked on it and wanted it on the album, but it made sense to release it early. Our manager felt like it should still be on the album, but personally, I thought it’d been too long. Drake does that all the time. “Hotline Bling” was out a year before the album. I think it’s corny. It was the same thing with “Edin” with Geoff [Rickly] and Steve [Pedulla]. We didn’t tour with Thursday, but at the time we wanted to put out another song. I was fighting adamantly to put that out. It’s got a strong feature and I thought that’d be cool. When we put out that song was when Equal Vision got involved, so we ran with the EP idea. We just wanted to get some music out before the album was out.
How’d you get involved with Equal Vision?
Our manager Mike Dubin just knows everyone–literally everyone you’ve ever heard of. Right when we started sending out the record, he sent it to them, and even before we got many responses they were down to do it. We spoke with them a year or so before signing, talking here and there, and we came to them with the ideas. They were down. We didn’t think it was worth it to Shark Tank it or hear any other offers. It’s a crazy label. They had so many bands.
You’ve got a couple features on here, as well as on the Nostos | Algos songs. How did those all come together?
Chris Johns from Stay Inside was in the band. He recorded It Lives and It Breathes and he recorded this one with us. He actually wrote “Witness” and “Wasted.” Those were old Stay Inside songs that they didn’t use. He sang that part of “Witness” in the demo, and it was all I could hear, so I told him he might as well just sing that part. As far as Jason, Steve, and Geoff go, Mike came to us to ask about doing a feature. I’d never thought of it. I thought it could be cool, if we had the right fit, and those guys just came up. He’s closer with them. It started with Steve playing guitar, I think, and then he offered to get Geoff too. What was cool was they all wanted to do it. He didn’t strongarm them. He sent the music and they were all stoked on it. That was cool. I don’t remember how Derrick [Sherman] or Cesco [Montesanto] from Sainthood Reps got involved. I think they were recording with Brett [Romnes], who did this album, and someone showed them the songs and they liked them. We’d played with them, and we got friendlier, and when I heard they liked our songs I just thought we should ask them to jump on.
How different was the writing and recording of Closer To; different from previous Common Sage stuff?
We started writing the second we stopped recording It Lives and It Breathes. It was just me and the ex-drummer, and it was during COVID. Me and my girlfriend flew to California to stay with her parents for, like, three months. He’d also just moved to California, so it was something to do during COVID. It felt like a continuation in my opinion, but I remember we both felt it was more adult. That’s not the word. What’s a word like “sophisticated”? It felt more grown up. We painstakingly wrote that thing. I focused on guitar parts like OCD crazy. It took a long time to happen. I continued writing throughout the year, and then we got new guys in the band and that took close to a year. I wrote for another six months or a year. We wrote five or six songs with the new guys. I took forever to write, like, five songs. It felt more experienced. There was more attention to detail.
Songs like “Shiver” and “Until I’m Gone” make a lot more sense in that context, knowing a lot of this record was written immediately after that one. Those songs would fit pretty well on It Lives and It Breathes, I think, since they’re a bit more chaotic like that album.
Those are songs we wrote directly after, so that would make sense. I remember since day one I was stoked about “Shiver” especially. I feel like that’s the vibe I wanted to hit on It Lives and It Breathes, and I feel like recording-wise and production-wise that encompasses what I wanted that album to do. I guess there are some more meditative songs on here–not necessarily chiller–compared to It Lives and It Breathes. I think the album is less chaotic compared to a song like “An Earthquake” on the last album, but I also think it’s chaotic in a different way. It’s more textured, and within those textures it’s hard to understand what’s happening a lot of the time. I almost wish we took it even further at points.
The closing three track run is one of my favorite moments, and it’s really cool sequencing. You’ve got the instrumental track, a more traditional sort of rock song, and then a quiet short coda–how did you go about structuring that?
I really wanted to do an instrumental track for a bunch of reasons. I love an instrumental track. It’s a breathing moment on the album. We tried to put an effort into intros and outros on each song, but we thought a comedown moment was important. “Patient & Kind,” then, was a climactic moment to me. I like a dramatic moment. It was a vibe I wanted to have. At some point during recording this I got really into Nine Inch Nails, and there’s a song in the middle of The Downward Spiral that has this vibe I wanted to recreate. I think anyone can figure it out if you’re into the band. I thought it was a cool energy to end the album. I had all these ideas for moments and I wanted them to happen in succession. Mike thought it was really silly and stupid. We were going back and forth, and I thought it was a really memorable ending. Brett kept calling it a trilogy. Once it was all recorded it clicked in my brain.
The song “47.” is one of the highlights for me, I think, and I love the title, how vague it is. What is the significance of that number, if you’re willing to share?
I got a tattoo a long time ago, and the artist always puts numbers in her tattoos. I thought about it beforehand, but I thought she’d just give me a number, and she asked what number I wanted. I didn’t have an answer, so one of the other tattoo artists just told her to give me 47, so I’ve got a 47 with a period after it tattooed on me. At first “47.” was just a placeholder name, but once I got into the lyrics–I was trying to make a conscious effort not to directly write about myself, but for “47.” I let myself write about myself–it just stuck. The title just stuck.
If it’s up to you, what do you want people to take away from Closer To;?
I just want people to like it! I want them to hear it and like it. If there’s any emotion it makes you feel, that’s cool.
What has Common Sage got planned for the future?
Besides these four Reggie and the Full Effect shows on the west coast in December, we have nothing. We’re trying to book a release tour for next year. It seems more likely now than it did last week. I hope Sainthood Reps can join for a little bit. There’s a whole bunch of stuff up in the air. Cool possibilities on the way.
If there’s anything else you think is important, let me know.
Ghosts and aliens are real.
Hold on–have you met a ghost or an alien?
I’ve definitely seen aliens in the sky. I’m not lying. I’ve not met one, but they’re real. I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced some ghostly antics. I haven’t met a ghost–but I want to. I’ll die on the alien hill. The ghost part I’m not sold on, but I do believe.
Closer To; is out Friday.
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Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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