Rock-and-Roll Realities
"A lot of surprising things came up,” Guards frontman Richie James Follin says as he mulls over the origins of his band’s long-labored sophomore LP, Modern Hymns. “Lyrically, I had been writing things I really wasn’t aware I was dealing with. Then, about a year later, I went through a breakup and everything I had already been writing about became much clearer.”
It’s been six years since the New York indie outfit released their acclaimed debut album, In Guards We Trust, and Follin and his collaborators poured the lessons they’ve taken from their personal journeys during that prolonged period of time into their latest set of static-laced, melodic songs.
Along the way, Follin decidedto produce what becomeModern Hymns himself to helpstreamline the band’s vision.“I know what I want things tosound like and, most of the time,with the help of other musicians,I can get there,” he notes. “Unlesssomeone comes to you withsome great vision for your music,doing it yourself is probably theeasiest way to get there.”
Toward the end of the recording process, Follin also began considering how these new songs would mesh into Guards’ live show, making slight alterations to ensure the tracks would have enough momentum onstage. “I started adding guitars because that’s more what we do live, and I wanted to be able torock,” he says. “I love rocking.”
Follin hints that Guards fansshouldn’t have to wait nearly aslong for their next set of songs.He plans to release more newmusic, drop some music videosand announce additional tourdates in the near future. For thesinger/guitarist, who has spenthis time away from Guardsworking with The Willowz andvarious other projects, the grouphasn’t always been a walk in thepark. But he’s grateful for thehurdles that have come alongwith the project.
“Being a band is just a wave of up and down and up and down in every way,” Follin says. “As a musician, you just want to make music and release it, but sometimes it just isn’t that simple of a process if you want to maximize the amount of people that will hear your music. I love everything about making music and being an artist. Challenges are a good thing.”
This article originally appears in the September 2019 issue of Relix. For more features, interviews, album reviews and more, subscribe here.
