Commoner: Phoenix Newcomers Face the Former Self
Four days from now, a Phoenix quartet closes a chapter they have been writing toward for years. Former Self, the debut album from Commoner, arrives November 13 via Pure Noise Records, and it is a record built around a single, uncomfortable question: what do you do with the people you used to be, and the people around you who are no longer who they were?
Produced by longtime collaborator Zach Tuch, the ten-track album treats the past as something to examine rather than preserve. Bassist Matthew Bryant puts it plainly. The record carries themes of childhood and your own former self, but it also discusses how the people around you have changed, and missing somebody else's former self. Vocalist Romin Mattison calls the album a window of reflection for each of our lives, a meditative piece that let the band close a chapter in their writing that needed conclusion.
That idea runs through the singles released so far. "Cemetery Dogs" was the announcement's focus single, and the band say it sets the tone for everything that follows, a song about watching someone struggle so far beyond your ability to help. "Sirens A Block Away" brings an unsettling, soothing jitter to the same themes. Then came "Passerby", an insistent, urgent rush of a track with a video directed by Errick Easterday, in which Mattison sends a personal message to someone he will never speak to again, a chance to express everything he once held back.
The album opens with "Cobalt Blue", featuring UK band Split Chain, and runs through "In Reserve", "Sparks", "Runner Up", the title track, "As Cold As It Gets", and closer "Appendix". Before all of it came "Breach", the single the band describe as a stop-gap, an introduction, and a bridge between the past and the present. They signed to Pure Noise around its release, and Former Self, somewhat ironically given its title, is a full-hearted representation of who Commoner are now.
Commoner are Mattison, Bryant, guitarist Beto Marroquin, and drummer Tyler Casillo. The band are on the road now with ASkySoBlack and 0 Miles Per Hour, with a release-day show at Gilman in Berkeley, California on November 13.
Listen
Start here
- "Cemetery Dogs", the focus single and the record's emotional thesis
- "Passerby", the most urgent three minutes on the album so far
- "Cobalt Blue (feat. Split Chain)", the opener, and proof of how wide the band's reach already is
Where to follow
- Instagram: commonerdreams
- Label: Pure Noise Records
- Pre-order Former Self: lnk.to/Commoner