Korn‘s Jonathan Davis was so excited by ORGY that he created his own record label …
Combining elements of old school punk, ska, pop-punk and anything in between, teamed with lyrical themes of social and political issues, Jeff Rosenstock’s brand new album NO DREAM encapsulates modern punk like we’ve never seen.
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Staying on brand, Rosenstock recently dropped the album with absolutely no warning.
“I think it just suits my personality better, doing this stretched out, rolled out thing is difficult for me to do without feeling like I’m spending the two months before the record trying to convince you to listen to the record before it comes out.”
“I’d rather be like, to our fanbase, ‘hey, here ya go, here’s a record!’ and everyone gets kind of stoked and excited about it right when it happens, compared to this slow, capitalist build up in a way.”
NO DREAM was recorded straight to tape in the studio, Rosenstock says, “It’s kind of a frightening way to do stuff because you can’t go back and edit things and fix stuff in the same way. Everything just feels really like it has this nervous energy in a cool way.”
“You’re like, okay, can’t fuck this one up, cause if we mess it up, we’ve got to go back and do the whole thing again. I think it really connected with us, because it was just like practice; just four of us in a room playing together.”
I think that hopefully, if you make a good record, all you can do is be as honest as possible and hope some people find some emotional resonance.
[ Jeff Rosenstock ]
“I like records that feel like they’re alive and feel like they’re kind of breathing, living things and having the energy like things are happening in real time.”
While NO DREAM was written with personal experience in mind, any good piece of artwork can be interpreted in many ways, and like a glimpse into the future can even be applied to a situation as unimaginable as a worldwide pandemic.
“There’s a handful of things, whether it’s bad external things that we can’t stop and that we can’t control, or to see terrible things happen non-stop and to not see the people who are in power not doing anything to change it.”
“The meaning hasn’t changed for myself but at the same time, I don’t think the meaning that I put into the songs are all that important anyway. I think that hopefully, if you make a good record, all you can do is be as honest as possible and hope some people find some emotional resonance.”
“I wrote some songs that to me, felt like they were about personal growth and kind of come to terms with some things I was asking myself about. Just trying to figure about being a person who is comfortable with existing in 2020 … or 19 or 18 or whenever I wrote the particular song.”
Having stated in the past that he’d never imagined himself doing well and gaining commercial popularity with his music, Rosenstock reflects, “I think it’s easy to get stressed out with any situation you’re in, like when you’re in a band it’s a pretty mentally taxing thing to be doing, you’re always coming and going and stuff.”
“If I had any advice it’d just be enjoy the moment that you’re in and don’t stress out too much whether things happen or not. I feel like the bigger things happened for me when I wasn’t really trying or wasn’t expecting it anymore. I think when Worry hit, it did good for us.”
Jeff Rosenstock’s brand new album NO DREAM is out now worldwide.
