Recessions, foreclosed homes, and the feeling of “oncoming abandonment” aren’t the type of subjects you would expect a pop-punk band to dive into, but that’s exactly what Connecticut five-piece Hostage Calm have done since forming in 2007.
While their subject matter isn’t always cheerful, it seems to have struck a chord, as they’ve quietly become one of New England’s biggest success stories, having been tapped to open national tours for acts like Saves The Day, Rival Schools, and The Wonder Years.
We sat down to talk with lead singer Chris Martin about the experiences that inspired the band’s latest record Die On Stage, and why you should check them out when they hit the Sinclair on October 12th with Citizen and You Blew It!
Allston Pudding: Your new album Die On Stage just came out – excited?
Chris Martin: We’ve been dying to share this record with people since we recorded it in January. The response has been pretty overwhelming and we’re stoked about that.
AP: So the album leaked a few weeks early and you immediately put it up on Bandcamp for $5. Just about every album leaks these days – why the urgency to make it available like that?
CM: Well audio quality was one issue. You have no idea how many people will download the leak, and the quality of the leak was sub-par to the recording.
I also think when you have a music community that wants to support underground music and wants to buy records, you put them in an awkward position when the record leaks and they can’t buy it.
AP: When I first heard your song “On Both Eyes” (from 2012’s Please Remain Calm) –I immediately pegged you as a band from Detroit or some other economically depressed area because the lyrics seemed to send that kind of message. Then I realized you were from Connecticut. How did where you grew up effect your lyrics?
CM: Well I was actually living in Baltimore when I wrote the record – and that’s a city that probably embodies more visibility the things that people would associate with Detroit. But I grew up in Wallingford, CT and my mom still lives there. The street I lived on has ten houses and four of them were foreclosed. When you drive down the street, there are abandoned houses and it feels empty – it’s not the community it was. And that’s true all over the struggling central CT area.
I really hoped that album would unify some of the socioeconomic struggle that’s happening in Detroit or Baltimore with areas that are thought of as more suburban but are also struggling. When someone looses a job and looses their health insurance – they’re thrust into that same totally desperate situation no matter where they live.
There’s a hunger and a longing on that album and a sense that things around you are narrowing and you’re trying to fight off this oncoming abandonment.
AP: That kind of struggle probably isn’t what people think of when you tell them you’re from CT…
CM: Yeah, people think of boats and mansions, but I grew up in an apartment at my grandmother’s house. A lot of people don’t realize that it’s just like the rest of the country where people are living the unfortunately common American life where you’re always close to the edge. It was a big part of my childhood, and it’s been part of my adulthood.
I think Please Remain Calm has a sense of someone being at risk. Whether it’s from the standpoint of oncoming abandonment or the risk that’s associated with young American life at this point. For us, we rolled the dice playing music and it’s worked out, but we’re always one step away from being in a tough place or feeling like we can’t do it. It’s hard to follow your dreams in modern America.
AP: So your last album was about economic struggle – I didn’t get that same sense on the new record – why is that?
CM: This album is more personal – it starts to deal with some of the darker ends of social life in America. It was written on the heels of a major breakup for me – so it thrust me back into this dark, lonely place that I hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Really the album is about life after love. The travails of meeting new people who don’t mean anything to you and longing for something else. And it takes on a fatalistic form and celebrates fatalism. It takes on a lot of extremes and celebrates those extremes.
AP: So the new record is called Die On Stage – care to discuss what that means?
CM: Well it’s kind of like a mantra – we use to say that before we played – like leave it all out there. Sacrifice yourself for art. Because when you go up there, you’re vulnerable – you’re giving yourself to the performance.
But then someone asked me what it meant to die – and I said that death is the finality of effort. It’s the end of everything you’ve done in your life. And what lives after is your legacy – like what you’ve accomplish and what you’ve changed in the world.
For us, the idea is to do as much as we can and achieve our own legend. Because once you do that, you have something that can live longer than you. Your life will end some day, but if you do something that is so meaningful and communicates something transcendent and timeless – then you have a chance live forever – and to us, that’s the meaning of die on stage.
AP: Wow – so that actually goes way beyond what you might take from it at face value.
So on a totally different subject, and going back to CT, who are a few bands from your local scene that you’re excited about?
CM: There are always a lot of good bands from CT – Sorority Noise, Dagwood, Death Blackbirds, obviously The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die…. There are a ton of great bands from our state and we’re really lucky to be part of this varied and accomplished music scene.
“Die On Stage” is out now on Run For Cover Records, and (literally) don’t sleep on their 10/12 show at the Sinclair – which is a 1PM matinee.