by Ben Bonadies

I don’t think anyone loves being in a band as much as Chad Jewett. The Perennial singer and guitarist has Big Ideas about what bands should be and uses his own art-punk project as a testing ground. But what happens when a progressive punk looks back on his own work? Today sees the release of The Leaves of Autumn Symmetry, a five-track EP of reimagined tracks from their first album The Symmetry of Autumn Leaves. Much more than a (Perennial’s Version), this EP takes early songs from the Perennial catalog and spruces them up with a studio-as-instrument approach.

We sat down with Chad to get the inside track on the new EP.

This interview has been edited for clarity

Allston Pudding: So why rerecord songs from this record, and why only five?

Perennial: So we had recorded the initial record largely ourselves, and we really liked that for what it was. But there was a handful of songs that we were playing live. And as we were sort of working towards the follow up, which was In The Midnight Hour which we recorded with Chris Teti, and had a lot more studio time, more have an ability to sort of fully realize we were where we were going sonically, those older songs started to sort of take on some elements of where we were at in 2019, 2020. And so part of it was just sort of wanting to have recorded versions of the way we were approaching them live. For instance, Chelsea’s singing a lot more in the live versions we were doing than on the versions on the record. We got to know the songs better and wanted versions that people could have to listen to that reflected that.

And then the other thing was, we had sold out of the pressing of the first record, Symmetry of Autumn Leaves. And we sort of thought, well, we could press another run of it and put it out again, or we could put those resources towards recording these versions that felt more true to who Perennial’s been for the last few years, what we sound like, how we approach working in the studio. So to us, you know, if people want to, people can still buy the digital versions of the first one on Bandcamp, it’s still on all the streaming services, but it was more interesting to us to sort of try to tackle them from sort of where we’re at now then just sort of put out another pressing of the original record. And then the reason we chose this handful of songs is basically these were the ones that we’ve been playing live.

AP: Is a song ever done?

Perennial: Probably not. I think a song can get to the point where you’re happy with it in its recorded form, and it won’t keep you up at night. From our perspective, some of the songs we’ve now played live maybe 200 times. That’s not even an exaggeration, it’s probably a literal number. And you just start to do new stuff, you know? We’ll come up with different fills, or I find spots where just making feedback is more interesting than the guitar part I had written or realized that it’s cooler if Chelsea and I are trading off vocals, and if it’s just one or the other of us. But that’s okay. Because that’s the reason why people should go see a band live. I like when the live version of the song has something different, or it’s approaching the song from a slightly different angle, because otherwise I can just listen to the record.

AP: You’re talking a lot about this EP being “studio as an instrument.” Talk a little bit about what you mean by that.

Perennial: One of the things that that we sort of developed on Midnight Hour, was trying to make sure that every choice we were making sonically wasn’t just there because it was the easiest idea or because it was the first idea that came to mind, really always asking ourselves: Is there something more interesting we could do here or something more surprising? When you’re playing guitar, bass, post hardcore, punk, indie, rock, garage, rock, whatever, it’s very easy to think “Alright, guitar and drums, that’s where most of the stuff is going to come from.” But we really try to avoid sort of automatically assuming that that’s what the main instrumentation should be, or that the verse should always be a guitar, whatever. So, really looking at all the different stuff we could use, whether it be organ or tambourine or synthesizer, or Mellotron, or whatever, you know, trumpet. Sort of letting the studio and all of its possibilities actually have a real place and a real influence on what the record ends up being the same way that a live show does the same, right? We have to be creative about how to perform a song that might be much more layered on record. We don’t have the option of layers. So what can we do instead, so that the live version has its own reason for being and has its own sort of interesting thing going on? And so when it came time for the new EP, even more so we wanted to avoid just reproducing what we already had. So it was taking a hard look at trying to capture how we were playing the songs live, but using the stuff that we could use in the studio to add some new angles, to add some new layers, some new shades to what we were doing.

AP: Is it more fun to record new songs or old songs?

Perennial: Recording new songs is probably more exciting, but it’s also more nerve racking. When we were going in with these five songs from our first record, we knew there were songs that worked on a number of levels. They’re songs we were still excited about, they were songs that worked well live. So we knew that we had at least cleared that hurdle. Whereas when it’s something brand new, you’re trying to make sure that the bare bones of the song work, and that the hook is catchy enough, and that the verses are doing something dynamic and interesting, and all that. But there is something incredibly exciting about the blank canvas of “this is the first time we’re recording this, the first time we’re playing it for anyone but the three of us when we’re rehearsing it.” So, yeah, that is fun. But it does come with this setup of responsibility that we’re thinking about.

So much of what we would have to pay attention to has already been figured out. So Will [Mulhern, drummer] might change up his fills a bit, I might add something or subtract something from what I do on guitars, same with Chelsea and organ. But, you know, by and large, that stuff is figured out, it’s just a matter of executing it. And so it does free up a lot of time for the the second, third layer. What can we do to make sure that someone who owns the first record, buys this EP and feels like they’re hearing the songs differently, or hearing them in a new way or finding stuff that that it feels like both of these records should sort of stay in their collection?

The Symmetry of Autumn Leaves is out now. Buy on Bandcamp if you’re cool.