Track by Track: SWMRS - Berkeley's on Fire

Cole: 'Berkeley's on Fire' came together very deliberately. After years of approaching the recording process as an extension of our craft as live performers, we decided that our first album on a bigger label was a good opportunity to dig deep into our music and deconstruct our playing in order to make a body of work whose sound was entirely its own. We talked a lot about the idea of metamodernism; the idea that by cutting together fragments of very disparate influences ranging from J. Dilla to Alanis Morrissette, we could produce music that sounded like nothing we had ever heard before. Given the nature of the songs we wrote going into the studio, this felt like the only path forward: Max and I both had been writing a lot about the personal feelings that accompanied us and the young people we interact with at shows as we navigate a world that seems to be crashing down all around us. Recreating the past is no longer an option for all of us young people who are marching haphazardly toward an uncertain future. How do you grow up healthy in a world that might not exist in a few years? Of course, the question is rhetorical, because none of us really have a fucking clue. We made this album because we knew that by creating a space for people to sing and dance through that question, we could take a break from all the worry for a second just to enjoy the fact that we're alive and we're not alone. And who knows, we might just come out of that space renewed with the energy we need to fight for our future.