Young English return with new songs and lots to say about them—exclusive
Photo: Harrison Lubin
Orange County, New York's Young English have regrouped with their original lineup to release two new songs, both exclusively premiering here on AltPress. The emo/pop-punk pair were recorded by Kevin Kumetz (Sorority Noise, With The Punches) at Barber Shop Studios and mastered by Mike Kalajian (the Dear Hunter, Saosin, Against The Current) at Rogue Planet Mastering.
Frontman Chris Pennings wrote an update to AP, saying that he finally felt “bursts of inspiration to write new music” after a few years away. Show offers like Transit's farewell dates spurred the reunion process, which Pennings feels is now in full motion. “These songs kind of bridge the gap between who we were and who we hope to be. We're really excited about what comes next, and the music we're going to make.” Hear the songs and what he has to say about them below.
“Albatross is about feeling overwhelmed with enormous changes in your life, which I've been dealing with the last year or so. I felt like I was drowning in my own life. Stress and loss just took hold of everything I had known. The end of the song and title are a literary allusion to the 1798 poem the Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. An albatross is a symbol of good luck, but the mariner shoots the bird with a crossbow, and curses the ship. The mariner feels the weight of this, and like it's wrapped around his neck, haunting him. I felt like I had lost all the good things in my life, and they just weighed on me wherever I went.”
“'Vagrants' is about the struggle of holding onto who you were, the life you had, but being thrust into change and having to grow from it. I pieced it together from ideas I had written over a few months. I wanted the riff to be abrasive and caustic. To be a loud when the rest of the song mostly soft. It has highs and lows like we all have emotionally. I used the word 'vagrant' because it's about being somewhere in life you no longer belong. My favorite part of it is the bridge lyrics, 'You can drag me down, down to the river, I'll never drink, I'll only drown.'”
