‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Simon from John, If You’re Out There, who have just released their 3rd album ‘But Now I’m Happy’.

When/where was the new album recorded?
We recorded the whole album ourselves this time. Mostly it was recorded at my flat, but parts were recorded in our storage unit we hire as well, as a bass part all the way down in Christchurch at Max’s flat. The whole thing was written and recorded in 2023, which is exciting because typically there is at least a couple of years between us writing and recording, so it was nice to be able to capture that “freshness” and energy instead of playing the songs to death before recording.

Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
Myself and Karl produced the whole thing. It was very much a pioneering effort, throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck! The ideas were all fully formed before attempting the recordings.

How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
I actually wrote all the lyrics for the album in a hotel room in Auckland. I woke up with lines in my head and I just couldn’t stop writing them down. Unlike the previous albums, with plenty of input from everyone, this was a little more independent. The lyrics covered the average life span of someone. The feelings and thoughts you go through, the experiences, the highs, the lows. The lyrics inspired the music – I used them to decide the vibe of the song and set out to write music that related to the feelings expressed in them. The instrumental of the album Drifting is an interlude that represents those sweet lulls as a teenager, where you are just hanging out with your mates in the school holidays and feel like you have all the time in the world. So it isn’t just the lyrics that tell the story!

Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
Yeah – I think its fair to say I like my songs sad, but for this album the lyrics were more optimistic and the music reflects that. Our band has typically done longer songs with a progressive edge but this time around, since the album was a concept album all written together, it kind of felt like one big 37 minute piece to me. This allowed me to make shorter songs with a more traditional approach of “verse, chorus, verse, chorus”. In a lot of ways it felt how I wrote music when I was 16 that was simpler and relied on hooks. Summer Days was a big departure from our usual sound, it’s basically a pop rock song! Funnily enough its a lot of peoples favorite track.

Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
I used a very minimalistic approach for gear and effects on this album. As with our last single Riptide I heavily used my Strymon Big Sky reverb to make a lot of interesting ambience, especially in the track One Day. This album also made a good use of a midi keyboard and some Protools plug ins, which was all new to me and helped bring a bit more background to the album.

Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
The Human Way was the first of the lyrics I put music to. I think it captures the spirit of the album and the overall sound I was going for. Fun fact: It’s the one song on the album that features Max Beauchamp on bass, he had moved to Christchurch and he recorded his parts there and sent them up to me!

Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
Yes! On Bandcamp there’s CDs, but they are very limited. Digitally it should be easy to find in most places, iTunes/Apple music, Spotify etc!

Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs? Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
We only did two videos, and I don’t think there is much planned for anymore. One is a retrospective video of the band over the past ten years for the song “Ten Years Time”, the other an animated lyric video for “You and I”. We don’t have any gigs lined up due to members of the band moving, but hopefully we will announce some for the first half of the year!