In Modern Archaic, NOWHERE FAST digs into their own world of contradictions, pulling together fragments from long nights, missed connections, and found moments. Seth Robinson and the crew bring an authenticity to each track that’s deeply introspective, avoiding the easy clichés.
Chemicals & Colors kicks things off, almost by accident, recounting the push to find the “right” way to open the album. The rough drafts are gone, and the message remains: time is a memory, and these memories demand space. Ritual flips the focus to persistence, a tribute to how music and late nights work their way into existence. With its searching keys and gritty riffs, it sets the tone for experimenting within their own sonic boundaries. Meanwhile, Burning Midnight Oil revisits solitude in motel rooms and endless roads, a tribute to all those who run themselves thin chasing after something they might never catch.
NOWHERE FAST knows when to keep things structured and when to let loose, and Organized Sound lives up to that approach. The song builds around the album’s lone character, Nova, suggesting self-destruction as much as self-realization. It’s deliberate chaos that leads perfectly into Scaring Majesties, a track that reminds listeners that vices don’t just go away. Sometimes, they eat you alive.
With Wearing Thin, NOWHERE FAST tackles mental health—a track born from found recordings, left unfinished until now. It’s brutally honest, with tape delays and dissonant guitars adding to its texture. Then there’s Birmingham, a song that Seth has been trying to write for years. A story that finally found its way, it connects the past with the album’s present. It’s haunting, driven by pedal steel guitar, and offers a glimpse of the memories that anchor the whole album.
Swimming Rooms finds its melody in accidents and experiments, bringing new life to old stories, and Buffalo closes out Modern Archaic with a dose of reality—dreams rusted, fading into daily routines, yet still finding a voice through the music. The structure came together in a single night, almost by instinct.
“Below is a track by track of our new album, “Modern Archaic.””, says Seth Robinson. “We’re grateful for the lessons this creativity still teaches. This record was full of surprises in the best ways. Even in the frustration at times. Some records are easier than others, but I still love making them. There is an art to it that a single can’t give you. We hope you enjoy the track by track breakdown.”
1) Chemicals & Colors – This song was part of the “Aeonian” sessions, our last album. I had no lyrics written at the time and a rough draft for a bridge. Chemicals always stuck around, though. It’s one of our favorites to play live, but I never thought it would open the record. I remember Rob and our brother from another Mother Garik pushing for this one to open the record. The funny thing is I remember changing the opening line a few different times searching for the best way to open up the song. Little did I know it would be the first line on the album. You have no idea how happy some of us are that I trashed the spoken word part in the bridge (insert laughter). I believe this song speaks to the constant of time and what that can entail for what you leave as a memory.
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2) Ritual – I’m blurry with the timeline for when I wrote this song, but I do remember searching for something a little sonically different. This song just kind of came out after a few late nights at home. I remember really having an idea for a drum beat and just burned my eyes out one night getting the rough draft done. So, I sent a rough demo of a beat and two guitars to the band. To me the song sends a form of encouragement to the character. “Ritual” opened us up to try things for this album and as a band. I love the keys in the chorus.
3) Burning Midnight Oil – This started out as a solo song. Then it became a demo during a writing session, but nothing after that. When we started getting into this record I woke one morning with the song in my head. One of my favorite things about songwriting (there are many) is when a song hangs around even if you don’t see it. It’s like it waits for its time to be where it should be. Rafa and Rob really killed it with the groove on this one and honored the demo to some extent. This song says it in the title lyrically. We’ve all burned the candle at both ends more than a few times. I came up with “Midnight Oil” between late night drives and stranded motel rooms.
4) Organized Sound – Organized was another song where we had it all structured, but we just needed to get the swing right. I love the movement in this song. In this song you hear the narrator admit they’ve already been prepared for the self-destruction of Nova, the only character name revealed on the album.
5) Scaring Majesties – This song I’ve had forever. Like “Burning Midnight Oil,” I believe some songs, even if written by you, may not be ready to be finished by you until another time. I do remember once we started fleshing it out for this record that the song came quickly. The keys really tied the bridge up nicely for Scaring. This song touches base with watching people use something as a crutch and justifying their behavior. Albeit anything really. The character here is consumed by its crutch. You eventually are not you anymore.
6) Wearing Thin – I was cleaning some folders out and arranging things as we do when I found a couple acoustic demos titled “The Alta House Sessions.” One of the songs became part of a single release, and “Wearing Thin” I knew had to be a part of the new record. I had a ton of fun slamming a tape delay and getting the dissonant guitars behind the arpeggios and airy keys. We did make some last minute edits in the studio structure wise. I feel like everything on this song was quick and took no time to know what it needed. This song is about mental health and the struggles it bears.
7) Birmingham – I have been trying to write this song my whole life honestly. I didn’t sit and make this happen, but I have thought for years how to tell this particular story. How to tie each character back to the base of the story. The key focal point of where it all started. When it was time to start writing a new album, I remember sitting in Jim Bob’s music room at his house. Just a piano and my acoustic. We fleshed out two songs that day. I remember this clearly because after all those years these words just fell out of my mouth. At the time I didn’t know this, but this song set the theme of this album. I cannot even begin to tell you how much the pedal steel on this song moves me. Roadie is such a solid player and I can’t thank him enough for playing on this song.
8) Swimming Rooms – Jim Bob wrote this song on piano. It was just a structure. Rafa added the cool timing in the chorus and I colored it with guitars over Rob’s solid bass line. Finding the melody in this song was one thing, but once it came together I knew some growth had been made. I wrote the words to reflect on Birmingham without realizing it at first. There were a ton of weird, cool, awesome, and wtf moments during the making of this album.
9) Buffalo – I carried the opening line to this song with me for months. No music, nothing, just the line “It seems today that people’s dreams are dying from the rust in our daily feast.” Then at our studio one night I was messing around with a new riff just warming up for practice. I believe it was Rafa that it got the attention of. This was one of those rare moments where the song just fell out of everyone’s hands. By the end of rehearsals that night we had a solid structure for the song. “Buffalo” we knew right away would close the album.
