I sat down for a virtual interview with Tyler Chase and Braeden Roberts from Sounds & Scenarios to talk about their newest singles, "Trouble Will Follow" and "Pink Lighter," and what the band has planned next.
You mentioned in an Instagram post that you've had “Trouble Will Follow” on the docket for about a year now. How does it feel to finally have this one out and living in the world?
Tyler Chase: Thank God, honestly.
Braeden Roberts: Yeah. It's funny, when I read that post, I remember recording the guitars and my vocal parts for that song and it was way back in a different apartment that Tyler lived in, in the middle of finals and stuff. And I was just stressed out of my mind and it's crazy. I don't know, it's weird. It's like it came out a different lifetime, it feels like. It's good.
Yeah. I feel like that's just how music works. Everything seems like it's planned at least six months in advance, so I wasn't too shocked when I saw that Instagram post, but I thought, “Oof, it's probably a relief for them to have it off and living in the world.”
Tyler: I will say it's not as extreme as our previous single, which is called "Pink Lighter." I started writing "Pink Lighter" in 2018. And then I stopped working on it. And then I started it up again in 2022 because I was very stumped on the second verse. And then I showed it to everyone and they were all like, “Oh, cool, let's do it.” And I was like, “Rad. It took us long enough.”
The story behind “Trouble Will Follow” is quite a rollercoaster and it's very specific to a certain event. When I listened to it for the first time, I sort of listened as if it was like a coming of age story with the chorus. You're talking about a specific life experience with this song, but all of our life experiences stick with us whether they're good or bad, which is just something we learn to accept. How do you think listeners are relating to this single, the story, and the lyrics as a whole?
Tyler: I think when it comes to “Trouble Will Follow,” I think we all know that one person who is completely f*cking themselves over in terms of their development and their growth. I feel like everyone has that one person in their life where they're kind of on a downward spiral and there's nothing that you can really do. So you're just kind of like going along with it and you know that eventually life is gonna catch up to them, and they're eventually going to have to get their shit together. And I think when it comes to the story behind “Trouble Will Follow,” I think it's the same boat. The person who I wrote it about, clearly I caught her on a bad day to say the least. I have no ill will towards her or anything, but I just hope that everything figures itself out in her case.
I think that's what the main thing the “Trouble Will Follow” is about. It's just kind of pointing out to the person that all of their actions are going to have consequences. What goes around comes around, and things will eventually catch up to you if you're not doing good things. It's less introspective and more retrospective.
The story behind “Trouble Will Follow” is about a person that I met on Hinge who came to our EP release show. She got drunk, she was pre-gaming before the show, and came to our show already hammered. One of our opening bands was playing, and while that was happening, she put on her AirPods and she started blasting Machine Gun Kelly, and then, she was just singing along to it really loudly. That just kind of rubbed me the wrong way, and I kind of just word vomited about it. That's kind of the whole story around it, and keeping that mindset of “what goes around comes around.”
I love when that happens. When you see it from afar. It is very, very nice.
Tyler: "Life finds a way," as Jeff Goldblum says. Yes, it does.
When I listened to it, I understood we were talking about a specific person. But the chorus kind of got me thinking “we're all going through life and trouble is going to find us somewhere. Always.” So that's how I heard it the first time. You still got to keep going when trouble finds you, which is something that is hard to do and that's why I mentioned before our life experiences sort of always find a way to stick with us, whether they're good or bad.
Braeden: Our songs, specifically this one, I think it was interesting you mentioned that you kind of got a different thing from it and that's one thing I really like about our songs lyrically. Even though a lot of them are written about a very specific event, anyone can draw their own conclusion from it. And they're a widely different conclusion and it has a whole other meaning. So I think that's really cool.
"Trouble Will Follow" is the follow-up to “Pink Lighter,” and you guys mentioned that this will be the last release in 2023. These songs do sound pretty different from each other, but they definitely feel like they live together nonetheless. How do these two releases tie into the album as a whole, and what can we expect the album to feel and sound like based on these two songs?
Tyler: Not a lot like these singles, I’m gonna be very honest. I see “Pink Lighter” as kind of a homage to what we had been doing for the last few years. And "Trouble Will Follow” is kind of the taste of what's to come, musically speaking. When it comes to the writing, it's kind of gone all over the place in terms of instrumental, inspirations and stuff like that. I feel like if I were to summarize, a lot of the stuff that I've been writing for it so far has been a lot of political-based stuff, just because we do be living in a society and that society is scaring me right now. When I started working on “Pink Lighter” back in 2018, it was still very much like in the early days of Sounds & Scenarios. So it was kind of like that perfect homage to what we once were, and also incorporating some of the newer influences that we had used on Cherry Blossom Season. Really using that Band Camino and Young Culture influence, and even like the Goo Goo Doll stuff that we were inspired by too, for that release. Then “Trouble Will Follow” kind of incorporates the heavier rock stuff that we're doing for the new stuff. Honestly, if I have to summarize the new album so far, it's like if the Foo Fighters tried to be System of a Down for 12 songs.
Okay, I'm very intrigued. I want to hear it.
Braeden: But for this album, I'm excited that it’s kind of the first project that I'm really going to have a big influence in writing-wise. A lot of the stuff that we've put out during my tenure with the band has kinda been established stuff and I've had the opportunity to add my kind of stuff to it. But this upcoming stuff, t's definitely influenced by myself and my seven string guitar. So I’m very excited.
Tyler: You'll definitely hear Braeden's influence throughout the whole thing. I can promise you that Braeden and I have already tag teamed on a few things. It's interesting because Braeden and our drummer, John Mark, they both came at very interesting times in the band. When the pandemic started, we were a four-piece still, but it was with a slightly different lineup. It was still our bassist, Avery, and myself. And then we had two other members, another guitarist and a different drummer. The drummer quit because he had to head home and he lived overseas. And our old guitarist and I were kind of going back and forth about what direction we wanted to head in. So we eventually decided, it's probably best if we split ways. So it was just Avery and I for an EP and a single. And then we hired Braeden and then we started working with John Mark, but we didn't hire him officially until this year. So Braeden has been seeing a lot of stuff, but not contributing a lot. So we're very excited.
I think what's gonna be really nice about the album is that it really feels like the perfect amalgamation of what all four of us are interested in musically and how we want to pursue forward with the band. It really is just like, style after style, after style clashing, but in a really solid way, if that makes sense. I don't really know how else to word it. It's such a “you have to be there” theme of the album. You have to be there to see it.
I love that idea. It kind of reflects what you all, as a band, have been going through the last few years too. You had a lineup change and if this album is sort of a bunch of different styles, that's awesome. That's something I really wanna hear. You mentioned Cherry Blossom Season as well. So compared to that EP, is the album completely different?
Tyler: A couple songs I feel could have made it on.
Braeden: They'd be a little bit goofy on it though, you know? It'd be like, "Oh, that's a CHOICE to put this song on here.” Based on what we've written already, this album is gonna feel and sound completely different from Cherry Blossom Season.
Tyler: It is a new sound and a new scenario.
Kind of like a concept album with the new scenario?
Tyler: I think of it as the lyrical themes around it are based off, at least from my experience so far writing it, are kind of based off of our political landscape. I know it's kind of a stretch to compare these artists to us but I think of artists like Run The Jewels, who are just so on point with their commentary about like, police brutality, and what's happening with our government, and I see it as kind of that similar vein. Not at all hip-hop oriented, but we're writing an album about what it's like to be living in the 2020s.
Braeden: It's like a modern day “American Idiot.”
I wasn't going to ask about your band name because I think that's a little cliché, but now I'm curious if the theme for this album ties into your band name at all. Was your band name specifically chosen for this type of writing style?
Tyler: I'm gonna disappoint you so hard. It came from a Blink-182 lyric.
That does not disappoint me. What song?
Tyler: It's from "Kaleidoscope." There's a lyric “so lock me up in the studio, fill it up with sounds and scenarios,” and that always resonated with me.
Speaking of Blink-182 and your influences, I wanted to say you guys sound very nostalgic to me and it reminded me of Midwest Emo, but you guys are from Boston. Who are your main inspirations for your sound? I'm super curious because I have some bands in mind that you remind me of so much that I can see you on tour with.
Tyler: We've had so many different phases in the band. We had our really modern pop punk EP, which was our first EP back in 2017 called Things I Need to Leave Behind, and that was very reminiscent of Knuckle Puck and Moose Blood at times. Even throwing a shoegaze in there. Then our second EP, While You Roam, was very oriented in 90s pop punk and very inspired by Blink-182. Still kind of incorporating that modern pop punk influence. And then there was Maybe Someday We’ll Bloom, where it was inspired by The Weekend and The Band Camino, and Def Leppard, and Journey. Then Cherry Blossom Season was inspired by The Band Camino, Young Culture, Go Go Dolls. Jimmy Eat World, a giant one.
What specific aspects from those bands do you pull in for your inspiration? Because when you mentioned some of these bands, I can’t help but think “these bands are so different from Sounds & Scenarios.” What specific aspects do you find inspiration from with them?
Tyler: For me, when it comes to The Band Camino, I really like their writing style and I like the way that they kind of incorporate their lyrics. They kind of go with the method that I go with regarding songwriting, which is show, don't tell. They talk about their personal experiences, but they do it in a way that it's vague and they kind of let you fill in the blank, so that way it seems personal to you. That's kind of our secret with Sounds & Scenarios.
I've heard a lot of bands doing that, where they kind of dehumanize/depersonalize songs for them so that we, the listeners, can personalize it.
Tyler: I think just that style of songwriting and their early stuff, like tryhard era or maybe even their first record for The Band Camino, I just love the way they take the All Time Low/The Maine inspired stuff and they kind of mix it with the indie pop stuff of The 1975, LANY. Just stuff like that. I just think it's really unique.
I immediately thought of Knuckle Puck and Real friends when I heard you guys.
Tyler: I was gonna say, you're definitely right with the Knuckle Puck influence. I think to this day too, I think I would call our main influences Jimmy Eat World, Knuckle Puck, The Maine, The Band Camino. I think those would be my big four.
Braeden: I always just jump to Jimmy Eat World. Our playfulness on stage, I feel like it matches that aesthetic of Jimmy World very well. That's where my brain always goes.
Since you mentioned stage presence, I read that your band's mantra is said to be “sad songs to stage dive to.” Will there be any happy songs to stage dive to on this album? Or is it still all sad songs?
Tyler: We've only had one instance of stage diving and it was before your time, Braeden. But we had one instance and it was cool. And I think that's what kind of got that phrase going because that's kind of what we do. Our music has always been about high energy rock music, and you can say the same thing about the new stuff that we'd be doing for the album. It's high energy rock music. No bullshit. I think the main thing that sets us apart is our bluntness and our emotional ties to our lyrics. I think that's kind of what sets us apart from everybody else.
Braeden: We should probably think about doing a little happy one. How about that? We'll jump in the think tank about it.
Tyler: We're gonna have a band call immediately after this.
Well, you know, like with a lot of albums, it's usually the ballad that bands struggle with, like, getting a ballad on there to break up the album.
Tyler: Oh, the ballad on there. The ballad is gonna be cool. I think the ballad is the easiest and also the hardest to pull off when it comes to making music, because you really have to tie your emotions to it. To me, the ultimate ballad masters were always Boyz II Men, and I think of a song like “One Sweet Day,” and if that was in the wrong hands, it would not have done as well as it did. I think you really have to kind of walk the emotional tightrope of really honing in that emotion while also kind of keeping things vulnerable and keeping things kind of tame and just like, "Here's my story."
You mentioned that after this release of “Trouble Will Follow,” it's all about shows. Are you planning to come to the Midwest/West Coast at all, or is it mostly just East Coast and staying close to home?
Tyler: We'd love to come out to the Midwest and the West Coast. I think for us it's just a matter of making sure we have the time to do it and the opportunity.
I think you’d do fantastic here in the Midwest, personally, I may be biased, but like I said, you have that very nostalgic sound to me that I just remember listening to when I was younger and I love that sound. It’s home. I think you guys would do fantastic out here.
Tyler: Yeah, definitely. 2024, I can see us heading out there for sure. Or at least I hope that we can head out there.
What would your dream tour lineup be? If you can make one, who would you wanna tour with?
Braeden: I'd put together like Ghost, Rammstein, Electric Callboy Sounds & Scenarios. That'd be the bill. It'd be nuts.
I wanna see Rammstein just to see them.
Braeden: I wanna like see the pyrotechnics and stuff.
Tyler: Right off the cuff, I'd really love to work something out with like Saosin, something like that, that I think Saosin would be really fun. My big goal is to tour with The Maine, The Band Camino. In terms of a big bill, I'd love to do like The Band Camino, The Maine, Young Culture and Sounds & Scenarios. Mm-hmm. I think that would sell the place out no matter which venue.
Braeden: That's a realistic one. See, that'd be a good tour.
Tyler: Saosin would be crazy. Saosin, Underoath and us. That would be wild.
I don't know how it works, but you would have a blast at Riot Fest up here in Chicago.
Tyler: Riot Fest would be sick. If there's something that we could work out, with Riot Fest, have them slide in our DMs.
This is my official last question, but this is my favorite question to ask anyone. My background is in film music, so movie music scores. Do you guys have any favorite composers? Favorite scores?
Braeden: I always say his name wrong, so correct me, but Michael Giacchino. I just adore his scores. “Ratatouille” is probably my favorite, but I love his ability to hone in on the very specific setting and aesthetic. He usually does animated stuff and I really like the colorfulness and just like the loudness of that stuff. With “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille,” you would think they're completely different composers, but he has his melodic touch and he's just so good. So that's why I say him.
Tyler: I was gonna say his work on “Lost” is really good, too. For the score, I guess what they ended up doing was they flew over parts of the plane that they used for the prop of the airplane crash and they used that in the score as percussion, which is crazy. Very, very cool.
Braeden: I just want to give a quick shout to one of my favorite composer’s, P.T. Adamczyk. He works in the video games and he does some insane electronic synths design.
Well, so speaking of Michael Giacchino, he usually does a lot of animated films, so have you listened to the new Batman?
Braeden: I've been like trying not to just because I haven't been able to see the movie yet. With movies like that that are big events, I wanna give it the attention it deserves, right? That's why when “Oppenheimer” came out, I was like, “Okay, I have to go the night it comes out, otherwise I'm never gonna sit down at home and watch this.” So I haven't listened. I know the main theme, but I haven't bit into it.
Is there anything you guys wanna mention about your new single, any shows, the album, anything you want people to know?
Tyler: “Trouble Will Follow” is out now on all streaming platforms, as is our previous single, “Pink Lighter.” “Pink Lighter” is a perfect summer jam while “Trouble Will Follow” is the perfect summer come down, so if you're looking for either of those vibes, you should go check them out. Keep an eye out for the album. We're hoping like early to mid 2024. It all depends on how quickly we can get everything together, but I'm feeling very optimistic.
Well, thank you guys so much! It was really nice talking to you. I'm excited to see you guys when you come to the Midwest.
You can stream "Trouble Will Follow" and "Pink Lighter" on all steaming platforms.
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