On the debut album from Social Outcast they touch all the classic cornerstones of emo. The throaty screams, the heartfelt acoustic songs, and intermittent change of pace and volume. In the first track “Intro” sung vocals intertwine with full-voiced screams before releasing and slowly fading into the pounding beginning of the second track “Latched”. Social Outcast are styled more like The Hotelier than Taking Back Sunday, falling more under the Brand New umbrella than the pop punk side of emo. It’s a style that’s familiar to Columbia over the last couple of decades, but has faded some as of late, though it’s seen a rebirth over the last couple of years on a national level.
Social Outcast capture each song in an authentic way, which coming off sincere is the most important part for fans in this genre. It’s all about the attachment of fan to song, lyrically speaking in this case, it’s the reason so many find solace and relation in bands like The Front Bottoms and Modern Baseball. With Social Outcast, many will find what they need both musically and lyrically.
How did the band get started and how long have you been playing together?
The band started when I, (Sean Bowick) went to a bonfire with some friends and a stranger (John Palmer) was playing guitar. We began talking and agreed to start a local band. We started in July of 2015, Social Outcast is almost 2 years old.
What was it like writing this release? Had you released any demos before this?
Writing this release was a lot of fun. Shortly before writing, we brought in our good friend, (Kane Lariviere) to play rhythm guitar. He came to us with a few ideas that we transformed into full songs.
In the past few months we recorded a demo of “Alone” which will be on the new release. In the past 2 years, we’ve released 2 singles produced by Archer Avenue in summer of 2016.
What was it like recording at Archer Avenue? Did the songs change much from what the were before you entered the studio?
Recording with Kenny from Archer Avenue is one of our favorite things to do. The songs didn’t change much entering the studio. Kenny understood the sound we were shooting for so we knocked it out quickly.
How did you fall into the style of this album and this genre of music?
We’ve always loved deep and driven bass. In “Is This the Life You Wanted”, bass is a key factor. We were sure to line up the bass guitar to match the drums really well. All of us have been fans of Indie rock or Emotive rock for years.
Have there been any bands that have influenced your style on either a local or national level?
National bands that have all influenced us are, Incubus, Bayside, Basement, Citizen, and Movements.
What’s a dream tour for your band? What three bands would you love to hit the road with?
A dream tour for us would have to be with our favorite record, Run For Cover. A tour with Brand New, Citizen, and Basement would sure be nice.
