It’s a weird time to be alive as a fan of post-hardcore music. The scene that formed in the early 2000's withered away around 2008ish... but now that fans of the genre have grown up and acquired disposable income, the dream to relive their childhood is just a vinyl release or LiveNation fee away. And while several bands/labels have re-released 10-year anniversaries, or toured their previous albums, Envy on the Coast returned with quite the opposite idea in mind.
“Brian [Byrne] and I didn’t have much interest in [returning for a nostalgic tour],” explains frontman Ryan Hunter. “Don’t get me wrong, we were excited to play the material we hadn’t played in eight to 10 years, but it’s a lot of work. There was conversation about new material and opening that book again as a whole. ... I missed making music with Brian within the context of this project, and he felt the same way. We were just really anxious to see where things could go.”
“You can’t just grind it out and expect successful results.”
The duo decided to book 10 days with producer Mike Sapone (Taking Back Sunday, Brand New) and hammered out as much as they could. Hunter and Byrne then recorded overdubs and re-records from their respective homes. The result was the band’s upcoming EP Ritual, which ended up in the hands of Equal Vision Records.
“Francesca [Caldara] at Equal Vision is an old friend of ours,” explains Hunter. “We toured with her on our second or third tour back in 2006, maybe? When it came time to pass around our current EP it was sort of a no-brainer sending it to her, and fortunately she dug it and what we wanted to do heading into a full-length.”
Amassing 10+ years in the industry, Hunter has seen artists who could have been great, but mistook working hard for working smart. And as he explains, you can’t just grind it out and expect successful results.
“Use your ears. A lot of people are putting in so much work and are exhausted. I notice that a lot of times that they aren’t listening. I’ve found myself making a mess of the last few things I was [working on], and I went back and listened to a few producers’ work whom I felt I was in the same realm as, it dawned on me how simple what they were doing was ... So just use your ears in every capacity. When listening to music and listening to your own stuff and listening to the advice of those around you.”
Envy on the Coast’s Ritual EP will drop June 30.
