A new interview with Kerrang! finds Code Orange vocalist Jami Morgan and guitarist/vocalist Reba Myers opening up about their newly announced studio album, “The Above“. The group pulled back the curtain on that new record today, July 19th, alongside their new single titled “Take Shape“. That cut finds The Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan guesting .
As some may have guessed, the album in a way ties into its predecessor, 2020’s “Underneath“. Morgan told the aforementioned publication of that:
“It’s definitely a brother or sister record to Underneath, with a lot of shared themes. But this comes from a more personal and emotional point of view, with a lot of sonic differences – both by design and via the feelings we wanted to convey. Underneath felt very digital, technological, claustrophobic.
This album is more open and natural. There are still tinges of the digital in there – like a sci-fi through-line – but The Above is more human, in how we made it, what its about, and the whole aesthetic. It completes a journey that we started with I Am King.”
He later elaborated on that:
“There are a lot of things drawn from the pandemic experience and everyday life, but, ultimately, it stems from the same thing that all our records do. There is a continuity between this and our other three albums [2012’s ‘Love Is Love/Return To Dust‘ excluded as a ‘Code Orange Kids’ release].
It has a lot in common with I Am King, particularly, in that both records are about self-worth, self-confidence, self-assurance. I Am King is about forcing yourself to feel that. This record is the other side of the coin: accepting whatever ‘yourself’ is, regardless of where it leads you. There’s a lot of synergy, but, in the end, it’s all about the journey of self.”
Morgan also stated that the record will remain as adventurous as the band’s past output:
“…It’s a departure. It’s challenging. It has hip-hop, alternative, trip-hop, ’gazey stuff, hard rock, breakdowns. There are a lot of cool hardcore parts in there, but there’s also a lot of melody, a lot of melodic songs that are hard in the way that rock music should be hard. Generally speaking, we’ve never fit in with any group of people for more than a short period of time.
We come from the hardcore scene, and that’ll always be the spirit of our band, but we didn’t really fit into that on our first record before we’d met those people. We’ve always done it the same way, just with different balances. We always build upon what we’ve already done. And we don’t build backwards.”
You can read more from Morgan and Myers on the record over at Kerrang!. “The Above” is headed for a September 29th release date.
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