The Apology Tour premiere potent new song "Not That Far," announce new album

August 9, 2017

The Apology Tour, featuring Nick Diener from the Swellers, have announced their new album, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and with the announcement are premiering their new song, “Not That Far.”

The self-proclaimed sludgy-synthy band’s new album is set to be released Sept. 15, and ahead of its release, we caught up with the band to talk more about what inspired the track, with a peek at what we can expect from the new album.

Preorders for This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things are available here, and you can stream “Not That Far” below:

Read our Q&A with the Apology Tour here:

About your new song “Not That Far”: What inspired the track? What’s the message behind the song?
Musically I was feeling something slow and brooding, melodic and heavy. Playing with synthesizers opened up such a new world for me. Something about tweaking knobs made me get a major Trent Reznor vibe, though I've sometimes referred to this song as “Taylor Swift meets CKY.” Definitely a departure from anything people might recognize from my old band, but still retains a semblance of my old melodies, because I can't shake those even if i tried. The lyrics are pretty stream of consciousness. In the past, we tried to explain what the lyrics to our songs meant as a chance to connect with our audience, but that was never my choice. I'd rather leave it up to the listener.

What can you tell us about your new album? When does it come out and what can fans expect from it?
I think fans of my old music will recognize instantly that these are songs I wrote. The guitars are much heavier because I use baritone guitars, which basically sit halfway between a regular 6 string guitar and a bass. Very crushing. I also stopped and chose a few different notes or chords just to mix things up, which created such a different overall sound. Whenever I wanted to play a guitar lead, I played it on a synth. Michelle, our bassist, has always been one of my favorite vocalists, ever, so it's incredible to have her on a record with me.

Interesting tidbit time: There's even a song featuring Joe Trohman from Fall Out Boy/The Damned Things on lead guitar. I actually started this band with him. It ended up turning into a full-time project, and Fall Out Boy got a little busy (to say the least), so we decided to part ways. I was lucky enough to have a bunch of his guitar parts saved in the studio and he was cool enough to still want to be on our record.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things cover artwork: