Have you always had a soft spot for the twanger side of the musical spectrum? There’s also a bit of a bluesy edge to “The Hard Way”, which is pretty new for The Front Bottoms. Especially a riff like “Leaf Pile” – that riff is so intense and heavy and scary, and I feel like with the acoustic guitar playing that heavy riff, it’s just kind of extra cool. He and I would exchange riff ideas back and forth all the time – and he’s just A+ when it comes to engineering and musicianship and stuff like that, so we were very lucky to have him in the studio with us. He would normally play bass with us, but he filled in a lot of the guitar stuff on this one. It was me, Mat and our producer friend Erik, and Erik would be like, “Okay, I’ve got this guitar riff.” And then he’s just rip out this absolutely insane thing. Hell yeah! It was ripping, y’know? It was a fun experience because we got to get in a room together and basically just jam out.
Was it fun to unlock your inner rockstar? On some of these songs – especially like “Montgomery Forever” and “Leaf Pile” – the guitars are just f***ing insane… Like, you are just absolutely shredding on this record. Just as you’re regaining composure, you’ll hear a country scorcher pave the way for a piano ballad to fill the frame. Pop it on shuffle and one second, you’ll be tapping your toes to a catchy and kitschy dance-pop number – the next, you’re being roundhouse kicked in the temple by a wicked overdriven post-metal riff.
It makes Back On Top feel milquetoast in comparison. Album #5 is not only the Jersey duo’s most experimental work by an unapologetically wide margin – it is, in all the most idyllic ways one could imagine, an absolute clusterf***.
But if anything, it seemed The Front Bottoms had found a comfortable medium to exist within a formula to which future instalments could adapt.Īnd then came In Sickness & In Flames. Almost in rebellion of how motley it was, the follow-up – 2017’s ultra polished and pop‑focussed Going Grey – was notably understated. 2015’s Back On Top saw them throw everything and the kitchen sink into one big, overblown musical smoothie of pop, rock, funk, punk, balladry and even a little tropical flare.
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