Tonight, the Brooklyn melodic punk group known as Worriers comes to Gallery5 in Ric
Tonight, the Brooklyn melodic punk group known as Worriers comes to Gallery5 in Richmond and it’s your chance to see one of rock music’s most outspoken and talented musicians today: Lauren Denitzio.
Denitzio made her name as the driving force behind The Measure (SA), another well regarded melodic punk band from New Jersey that formed around 2005. Extremely prolific for their short time together and as brash and outspoken as some of punk’s best legends, the band won over fans nationwide before coming to an end in 2011. As The Measure (SA) faded, Denitzio’s new group Worriers emerged with a similar sound and message, but a somewhat different take. More of a musical collective than an actual band, the group has a revolving door of drummers, guitarists, and bassists that come and go while Denitzio supplies the steady core and soul.
In 2011, the group released their debut 7″ entitled “Past Lives.” Their debut EP, Cruel Optimist, would follow two years later to a warm reception and it’s only now in 2015 that the music community is going to get the band’s first full length album. Imaginary Life comes out August 7th on Don Giovanni Records and is already being earmarked as one of the standout albums left to be released in this already stacked year. It’s a work that’s been a long time coming with expectations running high, but Denitzio admitted the pressure to do the album was mostly internal.
“I really wanted to tackle a full length as a project and if anything, it was self-imposed pressure of really wanting to do a project like that. It was just something I needed to have happen for myself. I wanted to write a record with people that were on the record and really push ourselves in that way.”
Imaginary Life serves as Denitzio’s way of tackling “what if?” in life. It’s not a concept album per se, but each song does follow a similar theme and that’s where Denitzio drew the inspiration for the album title itself.
“I felt like I was writing about things that could happen if you had made a little bit of a different choice or gone down a different path or just how things could still be happening in different ways if you had made a little bit of a different choice, both in good and bad ways. I think a lot of the record is about my thinking about different options for my life and a different dimensions almost if that makes sense. In an alternate dimension, things would be X way so that’s where I got the idea for Imaginary Life.”
For the record, Denitzio deliberately sought out Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace as a producer. For her, it was important to find someone who could understand where she was coming from in terms of the content of the songs, the structure of the band, and just being a strong, opinionated woman in music. Denitzio’s pursing of Grace led to an overall distinct direction and sound for the album, something that really gave the band a boost down their predetermined path.
“[Laura Jane]’s just an amazing songwriter and I know I can really see her effect in terms of really working on song structures and adding harmonies on certain parts and really working on guitar sounds and how we place the songs. Working with her one-on-one a lot of the time really pushed the record in a great direction. I don’t necessarily think that we became an entirely different band or anything, the record still sounds like us, but I could not be more happy with the way she does have her fingerprints on it.”
Perhaps influenced by Grace’s presence due to her well-documented issues with gender dysphoria over the years, the band’s first single released from the album, “They/Them/Theirs,” tackles the issue of gender in regards to society’s inherent need to categorize things. It’s a topic surfacing more and more in the public consciousness, no more prevalent than the recent “debate” over Caitlyn Jenner, something Denitzio was more than happy to discuss.
“I think that transgender visibility right now is very important and it’s something that I’m excited about for whatever the situation. I think that [Caitlyn]’s one of many, many people who I guess are doing a lot for visibility in a wonderful way and I’m glad to see positive reactions around it, but I also feel like her world, from a celebrity standpoint, is not one that I necessarily identify with. I feel like I’m not really invested in that world, but I am excited to see more stuff like that.”
Like “They/Them/Theirs” and the rest of Denitzio’s past work, Imaginary Life does have a strong political voice behind it. While some topics are described as political “but in more of a personal way, less than a policy way,” others straight out address topics that are becoming more and more necessary to speak up on. On “Yes All Cops,” the issue of police brutality is discussed fully and Denitzio is not afraid to pull any punches.
“Race is a huge problem in this country and if you don’t talk about it and address the fact that the police are incredibly racist, violent, and not helpful 99% of the time, then nothing’s going to change. You can’t be afraid to say that kind of stuff no matter who you are, but I also know that I’m in a very privileged position where I can talk about that and even interact with cops in a way that a lot of America can’t so that’s what I wanted to get out of my system in an emotional way.”
It’s a bold statement for anyone to make, but it’s not one Denitzio makes lightly, especially knowing she’s in that privileged position. To her, the option isn’t there to not speak up so finding the appropriate way to voice your concerns was vital to her, something she was more than willing to elaborate on.
“I don’t think I’m afraid to talk about those things, but I definitely think that I had to identify my place in that conversation. Obviously, I’m in a privileged position so I can’t take that for granted, but then what is my perspective on that and how do you identify the ways that you can help that or comment on it? But I definitely don’t feel scared to talk about it. I feel like the song is really my trying to talk about how to be angry about these things as a white person and to not talk about isn’t the answer. The constant of ‘white silence equals white violence.’ You can’t expect it to go away or disappear if you just talk to your friends about it or not at all. I don’t know how to put it – you can’t make excuses for cops basically. There’s just no way around and I think that I’m pretty firm about that.”
Despite the political undertones of the record, Imaginary Life doesn’t beat you over the head with idealism song in and song out. In fact, the album aims high to be diverse in its topics with just as much of the lyrical content focused on familiar topics like love and relationships as it is focused on hard pressing issues. According to Denitzio, it “enabled songs to have some individuality. The songs each have their own personality and the range of topics helps shows that.”
That range was crucial to the album process and remains one of the selling points of the record. More so than any song or opinion, it’s this wide scope of topics that stands out to Denitzio and makes Imaginary Life the album she felt the internal pressure to complete.
“The thing I’m really excited for people to hear is the range of the record. I’ve been really excited about how I don’t think that things are necessarily formulaic for us and that this record really pushes that so I feel like I’m excited for people to hear the entire project. Having the combination of some more overtly political songs and also some love songs and songs about relationships – that is something I’ve always enjoyed writing about. I think the record in particularly was made as a whole so I’m just excited to share the project overall.”
Imaginary Life may not be the debut of Worriers or Denitzio, but thanks to Laura Jane Grace’s production and Denitzio’s bold statements, it will serve as a grand introduction to a band that will hopefully continue to make audacious statements, lyrically and sonically. This is far from the last time we’ll hear of Worriers and tonight, Richmond gets to see just why.
Worriers play Gallery5 tonight alongside Caves, Sundials, and Smoke Break. For more information on the show and where to buy tickets, click here.
