I Before E - Sound In The Signals Interview

📸 Lucy Bates

I recently had the opportunity to interview Walt of I Before E. We discussed their writing and recording process for new album, ‘Hurt Feelings’, favorite songs from the album, designing the artwork and photos for the album, their upcoming tour, and more. Check it out below.

First, thanks for the interview.

Thank you for having us!

You recently released your new album ‘Hurt Feelings’. Can you tell me about the writing and recording process?

Yeah, Hurt Feelings had a pretty quick and relatively easy writing process that we were really excited about and satisfied with. Me (Walt) and Brennan, who have always been the two main songwriters, had very recently parted ways with our previous guitarist and were sort of able to lose ourselves working on a bunch of unfinished ideas we had been sitting on. I think the entire writing process took about four months. We'd send each other ideas, work out a basic structure, record a demo where we added all of the layers and ear candy, and then we eventually went down to Birmingham to record it all.

All in, we spent a little less than a week dedicated to recording and it was pretty straightforward. I was a little nervous going into it because of the scope of what we were trying to accomplish, but we’re both really pleased with the results. We got to work with Andy Jackson from the band Hot Rod Circuit and we spent a lot of time just talking and getting really good local food. We also got to sleep on the studio floor during most of our nights there. Andy made everything much more manageable and was everything we could’ve hoped for as a producer and engineer.

Have you been pleased with the response the album has received so far? How does it feel to have it out now?

The reception has been great. We had a big release show to celebrate the album and it was one of our biggest shows yet and everything we’ve read online seems to be pretty positive. It’s nice to have it out because it feels like we’ve surpassed a pretty significant milestone as a band that writes original music. Our only hope now is that it continues to grow and connect with people.

<a href="https://ibeforee3.bandcamp.com/album/hurt-feelings">Hurt Feelings by I Before E</a>

I really like the way the album starts with “Bring Me Down”. Was that song written with the intention of it opening the album or when did you decide that it was the one?

Funnily enough, Bring Me Down was the very last song that we wrote for the album. If I recall correctly, we wrote it just a day or two before we left for Birmingham. Right when we wrote it I think we had the idea of making it the opener. We were inspired by the opening track on Blow In the Wind by Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies and how that song starts straight into vocals with the full band. I think we just like those kinds of bombastic and energetic album openers. Pathetic on Dude Ranch is another good example. It’s a good way to hook someone into the album without overstaying its welcome. I think skate beats like that can be a little polarizing for the average music listener, but we love them.

This is your debut album. Was your thought process any different when you were writing the album compared to an EP?

Not really, at least not in any extremely noticeable way. I think for a longer project we wanted to make sure that we had more variety in the ways the songs sounded and were written, but that was about it. We obviously spent a little more time thinking about the flow of the record than we would an EP. We just wanted to make sure it felt like a “real” album and we spent a lot of the writing process discussing what all could help us to achieve that.

Do you have a favorite musical or lyrical moment from the album? Why?

I’m really proud of a lot of the lyrics and performances, but my two favorite songs are Go Home and Changing the Bulb. I think Go Home is our best attempt at writing a super poppy Pop-Punk song, I love the choruses a lot. In Changing the Bulb, I really like the second chorus and the vocal-only break. I was pleased with my performance. The last chorus in Mirror is another contender, the lyrics and melody and everything just really came together for me. I am truly the guy who fails and can’t prevail.

You had Mark de Salvo create the artwork. He’s created so many iconic album covers. How did you end up working with him?

Yeah, Mark is awesome. We’re obviously huge fans of a lot of the other bands he’s worked with and his style is synonymous with the whole 90s skatepunk scene and sound, so we were stoked to work with him. The painting is modeled off of a really cute photo of my niece from when she got all busted up a few years ago, so we just asked him to recreate it in his style. Mark is super accessible, all we did was email him and ask about the commission, which I recommend everyone do so he can get paid for his awesome skills.

The CD layout also has the theme of you being injured in a hospital setting with images of bandaids on the CD. Who came up with that concept and where did you take those photos?

The CD photos and iconographies were my idea. There’s a bunch of albums that we’re fans of that do similar themed layouts and photos like Nerf Herder’s debut, Ridel High’s Emotional Rollercoaster, and Dude Ranch. All of those albums have artwork and photos based directly off the name of the record, which we like. It’s an easy way to create a strong sense of direction and helps to make the album more recognizable or memorable.

I was really happy with how everything came out and I need to shout out our main graphic designer friend, Dylan Karbowiak. He is awesome. The photos themselves were taken at a local Chattanooga hospital in Hixson that everyone refers to as “Memorial”, though I think they just underwent some kind of name change. It was called “Common Spirit” when we were there, but most everyone will still call it Memorial. Brennan’s Mom helped us get inside for the photos.

You’re heading out on tour to support the album. What can fans expect from the live show? Will you be playing a lot of new songs?

Tour is gonna be super fun and the shows are going to be even more fun and completely unskippable. Fans can expect a lot of energy and bad jokes between the songs. We’ll mostly be playing songs from the album, but we’ll sprinkle in some of our oldies too.