Common Sage unravel the world of Closer To;

Earlier this month, NYC post-hardcore outfit Common Sage unleashed their latest full-length, Closer To;. Recorded and produced by Brett Romnes out of his Barber Shop Studios in Lake Hopatcong, the album embraces the early 2000s sounds of emo and post-hardcore — spearheaded by My Chemical Romance, Thursday, and At the Drive-In — without ever hinging too hard on nostalgia. “Change is inevitable,” frontman Julian Rosen tells us of the record’s core. “Emotions and memories are a very real and confusing thing that affects everyone in different ways. I’m trying to express a feeling of personal loss, as well as the loss I see in others on this record.” That ethos is certainly felt all the way through, as the band contemplate consciousness (“Come Undone”), religion (“Vehicles,” which pulls influence from the infamous ’70s cult Heaven’s Gate), and the detriment of clinging to the past (“Shiver”). Next month, Common Sage will play a handful of shows on the West Coast opening for Reggie & The Full Effect, kicking off on Dec. 6 in Roseville, California. 

Read more: Fan poll: 5 best post-hardcore vocalists of all time

Below, the Common Sage bandleader guided us through the creation of Closer To;.

What’s your relationship with post-hardcore? What was your introduction to that sound, and did you feel immediately connected or come back around?

My relationship with the post-hardcore genre is a good one. It goes so far back — technically to the ’80s, I think — and it’s so broad at this point, but I’m happy to consider Common Sage a post-hardcore band. I would say my first definitive introduction to what post-hardcore is/what it could be was when I heard Cap’n Jazz and the Blood Brothers for the first time. I heard them both in my friend’s car one night when I was in high school. He was just playing his iPod on shuffle. I remember feeling instantly tranced. I really had never heard anything like them before. Each so chaotic, but also so melodic in their own respective ways. So many different things happening at once. It just opened up a whole new world of what music could sound like. I miss iPods so much.

It seems like all of the writeups about your band profess awe about how you’ve been able to revive a sound that’s not of this era. Can you speak to that? How did you approach it, if at all (consciously).

We are not consciously trying to revive anything, to be completely honest. I don’t think that style of music that we explore has died off. I take inspiration from so many different genres and eras of music, but I love bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Balance and Composure, Cursive, mewithoutYou, Foxing — none of these bands are considered as reviving anything, and they’re all still making music (hold mewithoutYou) that falls in line with ours. I appreciate the sentiment, and that people can hear similarities with music from the past, but again it’s nothing deliberate.

How does being an East Coast band show up in your music? There are some significant players, places, sounds over here, and I’m wondering about your experience with whatever scene you grew up in, and are now a part of!

I think if it shows up in our music, then it is unconscious. When I first started playing music, I was very into indie rock, like Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Deerhunter, and anything adjacent. That’s what all of my friends were listening to, so that’s the “scene” I was in/into growing up in Staten Island, for the most part. I always liked emo/screamo/popular post-hardcore, but then I got more and more into the depths of each of those genres. When I moved to Brooklyn, I became friends with local bands like Good Looking Friends, Ultra Deluxe, Stay Inside, amongst so many others, and everyone had their own sound. I think they all inspired me in different ways, but I started leaning more into “post-hardcore.” I just wanted to play heavier/darker music.

What was the first show you went to? 

The first real local show I went to was a Christmas show that Monty Love put on, and Quantice Never Crashed was playing it as a reunion, which at the time was a huge deal for me and my friends. My first real concert I went to was when Tom rejoined blink-182 for the first time, and they released Neighborhoods, like 10 years ago. Weezer and Taking Back Sunday played. It was so sick.

First album you fell in love with?

Oh gosh, there’s so many. Probably blink-182’s Untitled was the first full front-to-back album. I still love that album. I will give The Lonesome Crowded West a very honorable mention, though.

Working with Geoff, Steve, Jason Gleason, and Brett Romnes — that packs a punch. What were those experiences like — how did it influence the album or even your perspective? What made you want to work with these people in particular? Where do you align with what they’ve done as artists?

Working with Geoff, Steve, and Jason was just really seamless and fun. Steve and Jason came to the studio with us, and so we all got to hang, which was great. Geoff recorded on his own time, although it would have obviously been awesome to hang with him. They’re all just super cool and so talented. Brett really shaped the entire record, and it wouldn’t be what it is in any way without him. He’s the coolest, easiest person to work with and had the best input you could ask for. 

You’ve been put under the umbrella of post-hardcore, East Coast emo, and hardcore — it’s easier to see where your influence may have come in there. I’m curious what parts of those genres you have chosen to not include in the Common Sage sound/ethos.

I’m not quite sure. Again, all these genres span over so many different sounding bands. I would say that we’re not fond of breakdowns or half-times at all. We’re obviously not the type of post-hardcore that Dance Gavin Dance is or the kind of emo that My Chemical Romance is, but I love both of those bands, and all the in-betweens, and I think traces of everything that we listen to appear in some shape or form.

If you could lay out the thesis statement for the album — what you’re trying to say — what would it be? What are you hoping people get out of it?

The answer to that changes every day for me, although it’s rooted in the same place. I think the thesis is that change is inevitable. Emotions and memories are a very real and confusing thing that affects everyone in different ways. I’m trying to express a feeling of personal loss, as well as the loss I see in others on this record. I hope people like it, whether it’s the words, the music, or the energy. Whatever it is, as long as people like it for whatever reasons they have.

Additionally, Common Sage also took us through every song on Closer To;. Dive in below.

“Witness”

When thinking about what brings someone closer to “god,” the idea of dying came up; something very literal and not ideological or metaphorical that shows up on the rest of the album. “Witness” explores the loss of someone, their experience, and the experience of who that affects in turn.

“Vehicles”

The Heaven’s Gate cult would call their bodies a “vehicle” or “container.” They believed that their current life was only temporary and that they were ultimately meant to ascend to something greater. These were normal, educated people, with families and jobs and lives. “Vehicles” is about not being satisfied with your reality, that there may be no meaning to life, and that one day you will die.

“Come Undone”

Consciousness is what makes us human, but it’s a scary concept. As children, we are all conscious, but that evolves and becomes more complicated as we grow older. “Come Undone” is about a series of moments and realizations in one’s life that make you question a world you thought you knew.

“Shiver”

“Shiver” is about changing as a person, whether that be physically or mentally and not being able to recognize or accept that change. Change is inevitable, and holding on to the past can sometimes be harmful.

“Until I’m Gone”

I wanted to try to get away from solely writing about my own experiences on this record and try to explore another’s point of view. “Until I’m Gone” focuses on similar themes of change, loss, etc., but more specific to someone else’s struggles that I was subject to witness, which ends up being told from my point of view. 

“47.”

This song is a self-reflection, specifically on some negative aspects that sometimes I find myself acting on. I never used to have malicious thoughts when I was younger, and I question when and why I began behaving or treating people the way that I do in certain situations. 

“Waste”

This song was originally titled “Epiphany.” It felt a little too on the nose because that is what this song is essentially about. Referring/thinking of “god” as most do and describing my own feelings and ideas on the matter. “God” can be and mean anything, and that is what the root of this album is about to me. A loss of a “feeling” i.e. a loss of “god.”

“Bulrushes”

When someone is struggling with something, it’s very usual that they won’t reach out for help. How do you put something you can’t describe into words? Sometimes it’s easier to keep it to yourself or hide yourself away, and then it all ends up being too late to be helped.

“(desiderium)”

An instrumental track, meant as a moment of rest. It’s a time to breathe and think both as a listener and within the world of the album before the finale.

“Patient & Kind”

This song is like a hyper-focus on the collected themes of the album. It’s about feeling hopeless and lost within your own thoughts and feelings of growing up and losing a piece of yourself that you’ll probably never get back. It’s about wishing there was still magic in the world like there was as a child, and speaking to something that probably isn’t there and isn’t listening.

“Apparitions”

Similar to how people say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die, this song is like a viewfinder — meant to flash moments/feelings/memories from someone’s past that could be the reason that made you lose your innocence. Reasons that made you into the person you are, for better or worse.