With their debut album, Diet Cig gathered both plaudits and whole bunch of big toothy grins, such was their infectious energy. Now they’re back with a follow-up. We caught up with vocalist and guitarist Alex Luciano to ask more.
Alex! Hello. How's it going? Are you guys good?
It's going great! We just announced our single 'Thriving' and our record two days ago, so we're soooo stoked to be sharing stuff with the world! I'm also currently drinking a lovely cup of coffee in my PJs at home so truly thriving over here.
What have you guys been up to of late, mostly working on the album? Is it all done and dusted?
We've been working like crazy on this album! The record itself is DONE (yeehaw!) but there's always a million more things to do that go into it, so we've been busy. When we're not working on music though we do a lot of rock climbing, I also volunteer for an art studio non-profit! It specialises in printmaking, and we give tons of people the tools to make the art they want, we also do a lot of educational stuff like teaching classes and hosting field trips. The record has definitely been at the front of our brains though!
What was your starting point for the record? What was your mindset like, and what ideas did you have going into it?
Our mindset going into it was really like WHEW we've been doing this for a minute, let's take a second to step back and take a look. We toured a lot less in 2019 while writing it and it kind of gave us a second to reflect on what we had done so far, when before it always felt so GO GO GO. We just wanted to go into this without the stress and pressure of cranking something out for the sake of it, and really made a record we're excited about. We allowed ourselves to take that deep breath and relax off the get-go and I think it really helped make the record so special.
Was putting together a second album a different process from your first?
Totally!! We had a lot more pressure to get it done SOON, and we were kinda like... we're gonna finish it when it's ready. The last one we wrote on tour, this one was written in a more relaxed place, physically and mentally. We gave ourselves the space to reflect and hone in on some feelings I don't think I would've gotten into if we were living the hectic touring life while writing it. There were some things that stayed constant though which was really nice, we worked with our longtime producer Christopher Daly and did a lot of recording at this studio in New Paltz, Salvation Recording Co. There was a level of comfort and familiarity that allowed us to play with new stuff and feel confident in the sounds we were making.
