The Muckrakers – “Quarter Life Crisis” Album Review/Interview!
Happy Wednesday After Hours readers! The past few months have been jam packed with killer new music and the hits just keep on coming. Today we are bringing you “Quarter Life Crisis“, the kick-ass EP recently released by Long Island’s own, The Muckrakers! This five-track project is filled with infectious instrumentals and deep, meaningful lyrics that will have you singing and dancing from start to finish!
Due to the way the world has been the past couple of years, The Muckrakers have not been able to release music since their 2018 EP, “The Albums Off“. For many bands, it is not easy to release new music after an extended period of a time. I can only imagine the thoughts that run through a musicians mind in a time like that; Will the fans still have the same love they once did? Will they remember what made them fall in love with the band in the first place? The Muckrakers knew EXACTLY how to ensure their fans remember exactly what makes them go wild for the band with the inclusion of “Intro” as the first track on the EP. “Intro” is a nearly two minute instrumental track that encompasses the irresistible sound and style of Muck that we all know and love so well!
The EP continues on with “Dance Song“, the first single from “QLC“. When I first heard this track, I was instantly hooked. The fast guitar chords and heavy drums transition perfectly from “Intro“. What stood out to me most on this track is the bridge/breakdown towards the end. The song starts off fast paced and heavy and ends exactly the same way! This is sure to be a fan favorite!
Something that I MUST comment on is The Muckrakers flawless ability to smoothly transition between each song. “Quarter Life Crisis” does not let up as the EP continues on with the album title track, matching the intensity of the previous song to a tee. This is definitely my favorite track on the EP. The raw emotion that can be felt and heard on this track is undeniable. The stand-out part is the chorus – breakdown – chorus. The chorus itself is so important because it perfectly describes an emotional state that most of us have been in at least once before. “Everything thing that I thought was certain. Slipped away in front of my eyes. I guess that’s part of, getting older. I don’t know why, I even try.“. From there, the breakdown comes in and melts your f-ing face! “25% of my life. Has been taken away. If I could do it all over again.
I would not become this mess! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
The Muckrakers finish “Quarter Life Crisis” with “Without You” and “Nexus“. “Without You” is the project’s first true sign of slowing things down with the soft, slow instrumental that runs for the first fifty seconds. What hooked me was when the guitar picked up pace. The chords used were almost reminiscent of a sound you could hear on a Dance Gavin Dance song. What fans will resonate with are the honest, meaningful lyrical content. “And I don’t care to think, of what my life could be
If I was still here. I died years ago. Oh, did you not know? Well, I’m sorry friend.” WOW. THAT IS DEEP! The Muckrakers complete the album with “Nexus”, a six minute song that will have you begging for more! It comes with a more traditional metal vibe from the rest of the EP and fits in perfectly. Fans will fall in love instantly!
All I can say is, The Muckrakers are on the road to BIG THINGS! This EP is amazing and I cannot wait to see what the band has in store for us! Stream “Quarter Life Crisis” on all streaming platforms, follow Muck on all of their social medias, and keep reading for the interview with Kyler and Shannon of The Muckrakers!
Photo by: Christina Grande
*INTERVIEW*
Dan: Where did you draw inspiration from for the EP?
Kyler: “QLC was a labor of love, literally. The inspiration came from the growing pains of getting older. Something changed for all of us and we documented it subconsciously in our music.
Most of the songs were products of discipline. We were directionless and trying to find inspiration from scraps of hard work and determination between the lines of living our regular lives.
Eventually, we wrote a song based off of an AFI-like riff that we were messing with in 2015 – I almost scrapped it after realizing that too. But our drummer, John, put a dance-like drum beat to it and we kept it on the sidelines until a year or two later. It was my intention to confuse people with where it would fall genre-wise, but I wanted it to be fun and get people moving. Dance Song is our Frankenstein of the EP – it took so many mismatched pieces to make something great.”
Shannon: “Quarter Life Crisis the song drew inspiration from Nu Metal of the early 2000s. The whole song is about being stuck in that transitional period between being a young adult and an adult. Trying to create a future for yourself while nothing is going right and feeling like no one is listening to you. While everything you knew when you were younger is also changing at the same time. It’s about realizing that life will always be transitioning no matter what you do.”
Kyler: “Without You stands out on the EP – it’s incredibly different than anything we’ve played. It uses a clean tap-slide method, which I tried playing several years ago, but didn’t bring that method to Muck until now. I wanted to have something clean and fresh in Muck. I wanted it to be the diamond in the rough, something shining. My inspiration, lyrically, was induced via a break up, which might be cliche, but it brought about changes in myself. I started becoming a new person, a better person, and ultimately Without You became a goodbye to my old self. I guess it transcended a traditional break-up song, into a farewell to a person I used to be that I didn’t need anymore. I hope it stands out in the EP as that.”
Shannon: “Nexus drew inspiration from traditional heavy metal like Black Sabbath. The whole song is about a character that is questioning their entire reality that they live in and wondering if they are really in heaven or hell? The character soon realizes that they are actually stuck somewhere in between.”
Dan: What does this EP mean to the band?
Kyler: “This EP is like our coming out. Our previous releases, while eclectic, pigeon-holed us into punk and metal, whereas this EP, we attempted different rhythms and more melodic singing to broaden our horizons. We listen to so many different genres. QLC is meant to be more relatable to all people, instead of sticking to one tribe like our younger selves did. Our roots may be in punk and metal, and we gained family in those scenes, but we want to invite people from all walks of life into our family. This EP touches on life experiences our generation has gone through as a whole, and we want to be more accessible and show off all of our sides as people. We wanted this EP to display how we’ve evolved.”
Dan: Any track on the project that you hold closer to your heart above others?
Kyler: “Obviously we’re fond of every track, and they each keep a piece of our hearts. I think they’re all so different, but they’re all a piece of the same machine. If you look at just one piece, you’ll miss the point. Personally, I don’t have a favorite, or maybe it’s constantly changing. I think I relate to each piece of this project, and reflect on different portions of my life because of that. Also, don’t skip the Intro. It’s a working cog in this machine. {lol}”
Shannon: “Quarter Life Crisis is the song that is held close to my heart. From the moment we started playing that one live we knew something was different about it. It just sums up a lot of feelings I think almost all of us 90s kids have been feelings the last few years. It’s a song that very much a turning of age song feeling like you are going through a mid life crisis.”
Dan: What was it like releasing a project after the long hiatus due to the pandemic?
Kyler: “The most important thing was probably managing our expectations. So much has changed over the course of the pandemic, and we couldn’t compare this release to previous releases. People were scattered and the climate of the scene was chaotic. It was impossible to reach everyone we’ve met over tours. The internet was over-saturated during the pandemic because it was every creative’s outlet. That made it such a high and low time for every creative in the industry. There was so much being made and so much to consume, but it was impossible for all of it to be seen because of how the internet evolved during the course of COVID. Contrary to that, we were able to sell out our release show and get the videos in front of many of our fans. We had an audience in the live stream of the release as well, and it was heartwarming to see how many different people have come together post-pandemic. I think our EP achieved our vision of relating to all different people – the proof is just how positively it was received by various fans across the country.
The hiatus was more like a pivot for us. We didn’t stop working, we had to adapt and learn different ways to survive in the creative industry. We started branching out onto different social media platforms we hadn’t explored before and even began a regular streaming career. We thought it would just keep our nose above water in unprecedented times, but it ended up expanding our audience and broadening our circle so much. QLC might’ve had to wait to on the bench for awhile, but I feel like in some strange way, it was better it did. Our relatable struggles expressed on the EP became even more relatable globally. Everything we expressed came to the forefront of most people’s mental health situations, and it made QLC something like a love letter to everyone struggling. We were all in it together.”
Dan: What’s next for Muck?
Kyler: “Now that QLC has been released and we played our first show back post-pandemic, we plan to hit the ground running. We’re throwing ourselves back into the creative mindset – we’ll be spending this upcoming year writing new music and planning new content. We’ll need to pivot back and play shows and get our booking company, MSE, on board with events again, while keeping up our new social media presence. Since we had shifted gears on everything being on the internet prior in our digital age, it’s an adjustment learning to balance live shows with our internet presence. Our personal situations have changed a lot too, with new day jobs, engagement, and living arrangements. So this year will be a balancing act on the tightrope for Muck, but we plan to amaze everyone as we charge forward.”