I’m Glad It’s You: “We definitely have an affinity for very personal music”

I’m Glad It’s You: “We definitely have an affinity for very personal music”

By Glen Bushell

Oct 26, 2016 14:55

“I think the plan is to become better at this whole thing,” states I’m Glad It’s You vocalist/guitarist, Kelley Bader, as we discuss what the dream is for the band. “The priority is to get better at writing songs and be content with what we come up with. We never really had any expectations in the first place, and as we've kindly been given opportunities to do things that we didn't think we would. It's raised the ceiling of possibility for us.”

Upon listening to the Californian rock bands debut album, ‘The Things I Never Say’, it’s easy to see why they have been welcomed into the scene with open arms. It flourishes and fades through driving rhythms and sweet melodies, and is loaded with heart and passion in its delivery.

“I wouldn’t say we had a vision for it, but we definitely have an affinity for very personal music,” explains Bader of the album. “To be honest a lot of these songs are not dealing with actual memories or experienced situations, they’re more of experiences and observations framed in personal language in order to be relatable or to draw some sort of connection. Sort of that whole “show it don’t say it” thing. But all of the songs are extremely personal in the way that I think and feel about the topics.”

I’m Glad It’s You started a few years ago after the group of friends, who had already been playing in some short lived bands together decided to put their efforts into a new band. Inspired by some of the classic indie forbearers, I’m Glad It’s You Was born.

“For us the whole 90’s sound was just a product of what we were listening to I think,” says Bader, looking back at how the band found their sound. “A good deal of our favourite bands, individually, are indie bands from that time, and some are still going. I think having that sound is more connected with our actual tones on the album than it is with the overall structure or songwriting, which stems from really liking the way some of those records we love sound.”

I’m Glad It’s You first surfaced in 2014 with their ‘June’ EP, which Bader says the band saw as “just a demo no one would listen to,” and since then he has “focused on songwriting and subject matter a little more.” The growth from ‘June’ to ‘The Things I Never Say’ is evident, despite the band still being fairly new at this. Bader admits he is now much more comfortable moving into other areas, lyrically and musically.

“I have a couple guitar pedals now, so there’s one sign of growth,” he laughs. “I also think what we expect and want from [the band] has grown, too. Before it felt like we were sort of just going with things, and now we have this sense that if we work really hard we could create some really cool opportunities.”

One of the stand out tracks on ‘The Things I Never Say’ is ‘Curbside, which in fact was recorded from ‘June’, and fits the tone of the album perfectly. “Well originally I think we thought most, if not all, the songs would carry over,” says Bader. “We felt so attached to those first songs we didn’t want them to end up in “demo land” where they would be lost forever, so we had always planned to put them out on what we thought would be a more legitimate release.

“But then, much to our surprise, some people actually did listen to June and some people liked it,” he continues. “I don’t think we ever let go of wanting to carry them over, but “Curbside” felt important because it was the first song I had written with this band in mind. And if there was one we wanted to carry over it was that.”

Even with the inclusion of a track that was only meant to be part of a demo, ‘The Things I Never Say’ shows a much more refined, cohesive edge to I’m Glad It’s You. They built on the foundation set with ‘June’, and realised the vision of the band. However it wasn’t instant, as Bader explains that he thinks, “it was more thought out but it took a while to catch on to the pattern,” and that the overarching theme of the album wasn’t intentional until they noticed them looking back.

“While we wanted to retain what we like about ‘June’, we noticed that a lot of the songs covered a different side of a similar subject, and the following material and the refining process were done with that in mind,” says Bader. “Generally speaking we wanted a more diverse sounding set of songs. We added keyboard on a few of the songs to help that along, and found that it’s awesome to have another non-guitar sound in the mix. It’s opens up a lot of options that I don’t think we really jumped into this time. Really I just wrote the parts over the parts I knew could benefit from keys at the very end of the recording process, and we loved it. So I think in the future we may try to be more intentional about that.”

Although the answer to the meaning of life will probably never be definitive, Bader divulges a bit more about the theme of ‘The Things I Never Say’, lyrically. He asks several questions and longs to find the reasons behind why we do things. “The main themes I see in this album all sort of revolve around the idea of being present,” he says. “I think a lot of the songs ideas, whether aware of this or not, came from sitting under really common unanswerable questions like, how do I do something important and worthwhile with my life, and all of those really subtle existential anxieties.

“The answers I always came up with had to do with the people who are right in front of me and how I decide to interact with them while they’re there,” he continues. “So all that is to say, it’s all related to connection and presence and wanting to value people. And if there’s something that could be given away through these, hopefully it’s a prioritisation of relationship and connection with others. But that’s more or less just what I think, so by all means take whatever you can from it!”

We discuss some of Bader’s favourite songs on ‘The Things I Never Say.’ As well as the aforementioned ‘Curbside’, he mentions ‘Keepsake’ as “good examples of the dynamics we like to work with in a song,” and that the band are “really drawn to putting dynamic changes in our songs; whether it’s soft to loud, fast to slow, or dissonance to brightness.

“These are two of our earliest songs so they’re the most clear and least refined examples of those types of changes,” he continues. “Some of the things that I think define what we like are present in a number of songs. We use a lot of the same transitions and ideas for song structure in many of them. But at the end it’s contrast that we really like.”

Despite an album that will surely cement their place among the top bands in the current wave of alternative rock, and the backing of the highly respected label, 6131 Records, Bader explains that I’m Glad It’s You are still keeping their ambitions modest at this point. “It’s easy for our hopes to raise pretty high,” he says, wrapping up our conversation. “But it’s even easier and much more settling to focus on what we actually care about. Which is writing songs that we feel connected to and are content with. And increase the vision for what we can make together, rather than where we can go together.”


‘The Things I Never Say’ is released on November 4th via 6131 Records.