The Get Up Kids are, for better or worse, easing into their roles as The Get Up Middle-Aged Men. But with their first release in seven years and having just completed a summer-long tour there’s an obvious Beach Boys-like demand for simpler, though equally angst-ridden, times. Enter Halifax-based alt-emo trio June Body with their sophomore release, Life from Underneath.
Part of a growing movement of Atlantic Canadian bands that are cozying up to the familiar once-rebellious genre, June Body are drawing their inspirations from bands of the late ’90s and early ’00s including Placebo, Death Cab for Cutie, Jimmy Eat World, Pedro the Lion, and Sunny Day Real Estate.
“I personally have always been very inspired by Placebo, and the reason I mention them is because I see a lot of similarities between ‘Life from Underneath’ and some of Placebo’s early records, which also were recorded when they were a trio,” says June Body’s guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Connor James.
Life from Underneath is a serious leap forward for the June Body, moving from recording their 2017 8-track debut Star for You in a bedroom-turned-studio to Halifax’s Echo Chamber, working with Charles Austin (The Super Friendz) and AJ Boutilier (Designosaur). We lose the DIY charm of Star for You’s low-key lo-fi sound that seems synonymous with a genre that was traditionally delivered via terrible Napster downloads and bootlegs in the same way that you want to hear 50’s doo-wop through the warm crackle of radio. What we gain is a full spectrum of sound and a lot of polish.
The band also gained drummer Dillon Shillieto, rounding out the trio with James and bassist Alex Callaghan. James attributes the combined factors of Shillieto’s contributions on the drums, the studio recording, and mixing and mastering by AJ Boutilier that resulted in the album’s “big” sound.
“When we started playing with Dillon, we felt our sound evolving into a kind of big rock-trio kind of feel as opposed to the more soft-spoken lighter tones from our first record. Mainly because on our first record, I drummed-and I’m a novice at best. When we started working new songs, we felt the band becoming much more dynamic. It lent more to the style you get on the new record which is this loud, punchy sort of alt-rock,” explains James.
The band have since had Jonny Renken step in as drummer while Shillieto has returned to New York. Renken continues to perform with the June Body, appearing on the band’s Ontario tour in promotion with the album.
“Thematically, the record centres mostly around a theme of depression that festers internally with nowhere to go–the idea that the internal you can become a personal ‘god’ of sorts that rules over your life in a negative way,” explains James.
The album delves through the theme of depression and coping, albeit handling it poorly. It lives up to its title, Life from Underneath, and the skewed perspective that comes with it.
“This extends to themes of forgetting about people who are there for you during periods of darkness, or thinking that relationships are meant to fall apart, when in actuality it’s just that depressed part of your brain seeping through and potentially convincing you that everything ought to fail.”
Fortunately and despite the album’s theme of depression, June Body are capable of glossing over poignant lyrics with catchy tracks, bookending their beats with an upswing for a low-key dance party. “Dead Eyes are no Prize” is the sort of song that deserves an impromptu late night dashboard drum solo. The spitfire delivery of lyrics on “Living Inside” is a presumed crowd-pleaser before it slides into a slow mid-song breakdown. The real big guns come out for the album’s grand finale. “How the Story Starts” is what the band have been pacing themselves for and their high energy finish.
For rekindling a genre that had been ground down to a fine dust over the last decade June Body’s Life from Underneath is a fine example. It’s a fresh take that shows promise, we just hope they cheer up before next album.