Exclusive Interview with DRUNKEN LOGIC

What are you willing to give up, and what are you willing to embrace in the dating world of the twenty-first century, when toxic masculinity is pervasive in the mindset of the people you are pursuing? In “Rounding Up,” by Drunken Logic, we are posed with these questions about the contemporary scene from a male perspective, where dating is a minefield and none of us are wearing enough protection. The crisis of self is brought on by a constant search for something better and the failure to find it. Check out the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: This project started when I was at Berklee in Boston – I’d written too many songs to sit still anymore. So I got some friends together and started playing shows, and eventually started recording those songs as well. Three albums and two EPs in, that’s more or less what we’re still doing.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: A lot of both. I took piano lessons as a kid, but gave them up after age 12. I started writing songs in middle school, but honed my craft quite a bit at Berklee. I started singing in high school, but took lessons in college. And I taught myself guitar more recently, though I’ve taken lessons in that as well.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘DRUNKEN LOGIC’?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: The name is just something someone said at a bar one time – I googled it, and it wasn’t taken. I do think it’s funny, and an accurate description of how I feel about the subject matter of our songs (even if I’m not quite as inebriated when I write them as the name would suggest). My parents got me started on the Who, the Beatles, and Elton John. I discovered Green Day, Weezer, and Foo Fighters in elementary school, and started writing music pretty quickly after becoming obsessed with them. In high school and college, I was in love with indie bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Frightened Rabbit. Right now, I’m listening to a lot of Gang of Youths and CHVRCHES, but I also recently rediscovered Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind, and Teenage Fan Club.

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I try to make music that’s challenging, creative, and compassionate. Our music isn’t always easy to listen to, and neither are the lyrics – our new EP explores toxic masculinity in our society and in ourselves. But the characters and experiences I write about, they come from a real and relatable place, even if we’re not always comfortable relating to those people and themes. Our music also experiments with different influences, instruments, time signatures, and more – we like to subvert expectations and surprise our listeners. But a fat hook and a great lyric line are never too far away.

5. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?

DRUNKEN LOGIC:

I think I’m a writer first and foremost, mostly because I’m not an extrovert. And I consider myself a craftsman, and love the honing process of writing and recording. But there’s nothing quite like the rush of playing your music to a wonderful crowd, no matter how big the room is, and the love that flows from the stage to the audience and back to you.

6. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

DRUNKEN LOGIC:

Living month to month as a freelancer. I spent a decade making a living doing dueling piano gigs, wedding band gigs, improv comedy gigs, and a lot more – and all that work can be fun and can teach you a lot. But it’s not stable, and for me at least, there was a ceiling on the enjoyment and growth I could get out of it. I went back to grad school during the pandemic, and now I’m a music teacher at a school here in L.A. – and while that job has its challenges and frustrations, it’s incredibly rewarding, and I feel so much healthier now that I know where my paycheck is going to come from every month.

7. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

DRUNKEN LOGIC:

Our third album, The Loudness Wars, was explicitly written in response to and about the sociopolitical divide in this country. As I alluded to earlier, I think I was always bound to write my own record in the American Idiot lineage. That’s the most ambitious project we’ve ever done, and I’m immensely proud of it. I think we live in frightening and important times, and music is one way to process and protest them, and there are a lot of people out there who can relate. But I also think that, if you’re paying attention to the world and to yourself, you’ll find those themes will bleed into your life and work. I didn’t set out to write an EP about toxic masculinity – I just realized one day that I had five songs that all addressed that concept in a way, even though they are all surprising and different. Those five songs became our new EP, An Awful Lot Of Nothing.

8. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

DRUNKEN LOGIC:

My music is my life’s work, and I’m thrilled I’ve gotten to make so much of it and that I’ve gotten to meet and work with so many great people along the way. I get frustrated at times that I haven’t seen more success – I’m only human – and I’m going to continue working to get my music heard by as many people as I can. But I absolutely get fulfillment from what I’ve done already, and the community that I get to be a part of as a result.

9. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I wouldn’t be on social media much if I wasn’t making music. I don’t think it’s a good thing that the number of followers you have seems to be the only currency in this industry anymore, and I lump streaming numbers into that as well. While there’s a lot fewer gatekeepers in music now, it feels more capitalistic than ever because you can lose yourself in comparing your numbers to everyone else. And the algorithms help us create these isolating bubbles that seem to both validate our views and keep us perpetually agitated and afraid. But I’ll admit I love puppy videos and NBA memes as much as everyone else.

10. Do you think it is important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I think the context and “real” meaning of a song can be revealing and educational. I find those stories incredibly relatable, and there are important lessons you can glean from them. But at the end of the day, once enough people like your song, it doesn’t belong to you anymore – it belongs to the world. And you have to accept that the meaning is going to change once it does. Great songs have enough specificity to feel real and lived in, but enough vagueness that anyone can put themselves in that time and place and feel alive. You have to leave space for everyone to find their own meaning.

11. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as indie rock?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I spent most of middle school dissecting alternative rock and pop punk songs on the piano, which is kind of hilarious in retrospect because most of that music doesn’t have any piano it. The first song I remember writing was a blatant ripoff of New Found Glory’s “My Friends Over You,” and after Green Day put out American Idiot, I thought music was only important if it was explicitly political and conceptual, so I tried writing a rock opera of my own. But as I grew more confident in my ability, listened to more music, and wrote more, I found my own voice. I auditioned for Berklee with a song I’d written that bridged the 1990’s alt rock and 2000’s indie music I loved, and after that I was off to the races.

12. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I’m always collecting musical and lyrical ideas, on my phone and computer and in notebooks. Usually, at some point, two of those ideas combine in my head – a lyric I’ve written matches up with a melody that I hear, or a chord progression matches with a theme I’ve been chewing on. Then it’s just a matter of working with those ideas, massaging and honing them, until I feel like they’re presentable. That’s when I like to bring in other musicians and producers and get their input.

13. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?

DRUNKEN LOGIC: I wrote a song called “What A Beautiful Morning!” in response to Donald Trump’s rise – it was a direct response to his particularly insidious brand of American nostalgia and exceptionalism, and the dishonesty inherent in it. We made a music video with it that’s made up entirely of found footage from old newsreels and public domain clips that really helps illuminate that message. That song and video were part of an anti-Trump compilation alongside bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, and more before the 2016 election. It was an honor to be played alongside some of my musical heroes while making an important statement like that.