Interview: From States Away chat about their new album

Interview by Chloe Muñoz, Photo by Brandon Lane

 To begin, congratulations on the newest release of Sun In My Eyes. Going into the record was there something that you felt had to be in music, lyrics or otherwise? In the sense of an underlying meaning or a theme of any?

         Chris - Thank you very much! Honesty, we just wanted this record to be the most From States Away album there ever was, and I think we accomplished that. Every single piece of us is in this record. We really poured everything we had into it.

Was there any heavy influence going into the writing and/or the producing? I know there's a semblance of Balance & Composure but, is there anyone else that you were able to hook onto and put their influence into your own record?

       Chris - Definitely a lot of B&C for me lyrically! We’re a very diverse group in terms of music taste but key influences for this record were definitely The Story So Far, The Wonder Years, Blink-182 and Taking Back Sunday.

Each album cycle is a different process, when it comes to Sun In My Eyes is it a continuation of what From States Away has done or is this a new path to tread onto? What are some things you did differently during this album process?

       Bennett - For this record, we really focused on completing fully fleshed out demo recordings before hitting the studio to record. It let us dive into the writing process with an attention to detail like never before. Every note you hear on this album has been analyzed 100 times over. There were days Joey and I spent an entire evening just working on a single verse. I feel it really shows in the final product in creating something we were extremely confident and proud of. 

Is there anything that you took away from the making of Sun In My Eyes versus anything else in your discography?

    Chris - Making a record is one of the hardest things we’ve ever done and the most rewarding. It’s a huge achievement for us as a band and us individually.

In Icarus fashion, what would be the “too close to the sun” achievement for this record either within your discography and/or within the band as a whole?

    Chris - Selling out our album release show at Pianos a week after it was announced. We had never sold out a show before that.

Lastly, if someone has never heard of From States Away, what song from Sun In My Eyes would be the first recommendation and why?

         Bennett - We’ve actually been talking about “Bypass” in this fashion a bit, it’s really got something from every era of FSA. From the poppy bouncy intro, the hard hitting chug filled chorus, warm bridge buildup, into the anthemic huge dual vocal outro, which has really become a staple of FSA that I love.