Photos taken by Sydney Wisner at Emo’s in Austin, Texas on April 17, 2023.
At this moment half•alive are on a pilgrimage westward across North America.
Austin, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, LA. It doesn’t matter where they wake up. These three friends from Long Beach ‘just found out’ they’re the biggest band in the world.
“Turn on your computer: video of half•alive,” said bassist J. Tyler Johnson in a sarcastic but laughably serious tone. “Turn on your car: video of half•alive. You may realize your whole life is a video of half•alive. You wake up…or even when you’re sleeping: half•alive.”
Okay, they’re not egotistical enough to believe they invade every aspect of each person’s life. Their ego is actually so deflated that the band, which also includes singer Josh Taylor and drummer Brett Kramer, do find time to rest.
The music industry is intense. Artists can find themselves doubling as workaholics. This isn’t to say half•alive doesn’t work as hard as other musicians. They only happened to have two years to write and record their 55-minute-long album Conditions Of A Punk, which released in December 2022 via RCA Records.
“There was definitely time for rest,” Taylor said. “I think we’re not too crazy on our schedule. We had to be intentional about taking time off, tending to ourselves at certain times, protecting weekends, all that.”
Don’t be fooled by Taylor’s words. The recording process wasn’t a total lollygag. He and his bandmates still had to pen 18 tracks and lay them down in the studio.
“There were a couple of moments at the end where I think we worked until, like, 4 a.m. and we were going hard,” Johnson said. “We got to finish “Bad Thoughts.” We were in the studio, we were just going, going and going. There are certain moments that we had to join the hustle of ‘the scene’ to get to this album done. Our attitude was ‘We have a deadline. Let’s chase the deadline. Oh, the deadline keeps getting pushed.’ It was a bit of a blend of the two concepts.”
It’s clearly a circumstantial balance–but half•alive has advice for artists looking to mimic their work-life balance formula.
“There’s that quote ‘art’s never completed, it’s only abandoned,’” recalled Taylor. “I think that’s important to realize. You can work forever on tweaking something, but it might not be making it better. It’s just making it different. Sometimes you just have to go with ‘first thought best thought.’ Sometimes you can overdo something. It’s just the rawness that people want.”
“Yes,” Kramer agreed. “I personally think being present and just paying attention to your internal world is a big factor in finding balance. I think a lot of times with social media, what we think we’re seeing, and consequently how we’re making ourselves feel based on what we’re seeing, isn’t exactly reality, or even the truth. I think it’s easy to get discouraged or caught up in where you think other people are and where you aren’t. I think it’s just better to focus on where you’re at and celebrate your own victories instead of comparing all the time.”
May Day (known to amateur calendar flippers as May 1) is a celebration marking the halfway point between spring and summer’s equinox. It coincidentally is around the halfway point of half•alive’s North American tour with Tessa Violet.
Seasons and music are like cheese and wine. You can have one without the other, but they’re better together. All four at once? Forget about it.
It’s purely a coincidence that half•alive is taking Confessions Of A Punk on tour while the weather warms for most of the continent. There are sounds of the summer and songs of the spring but this trio isn’t trying to attach their sound to a certain feeling or expecting fans to associate these songs with blue skies and bro tanks. They intentionally wrote the record to incorporate all seasons.
“I hope each season actually is ‘the record’ of each season,” said Johnson. That’s because we were intentional. This whole album hits all the seasons. I hope it’s the spring record and the summer record. Obviously, summer records are more of a moment for sure. But I think we’re intentional with our seasons and I hope fans connect to each season and eventually look back, remember this coming summer and then these songs come to mind. Or even the fall. We’re just excited that fans kind of seem to grasp on that a little bit.
“I remember meeting fans saying, ‘your songs helped me get through seasonal depression, anxiety,’ you name it. I think that seeps in when we’re working on songs and want to be in touch and intentional with the emotions and with the hope that we’re trying to spread through these lyrics that we’re like thinking of those types of people we want the songs to hit and really help people and really stir up those conversations internally with themselves or with their friend group. Hopefully these songs are part of the change for the better for these people. We love getting to meet fans, to get to hear their stories and I think that all seeps through with everything we do as well.”
Speaking of fans, most people agree that music has “internet fans,” right? Not just gen-z’ers or late millennials whose Instagram feeds are stuffed with 90 new single announcements every Tuesday morning and reviews on Fridays. We’re talking TikTok pages filled with the same song on repeat. Well those fans aren’t exactly half•alive’s fanbase, but they’re happy to meet those internet fans along their current tour.
“Tessa’s fans are a lot more ‘internet’ than we are,” said Taylor. “So maybe it’ll bring more new fans to the show. That’d be cool.”
“I think we’re hoping that it’ll bring new energy to the audience that I think we’re really excited to experience,” Kramer responded. “Tessa’s such an amazing and experienced artist that we’re excited for people to be energized by her show going into ours. And Dev Lemons is there too! We’re all fans of Dev. I think she just brings something so unique that I think gives people hope and that we’re excited to connect to be on the receiving end of people who have just seen those two acts, not just us.”
Isn’t this tour about half•alive though? They are such an overarching power after all.
Buy a ticket: half•alive. Sunny May Monday in Seattle: half•alive. Connect with three down-to-earth guys’ music no matter the time of year: half•alive.
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