“Room For One More,” the new full-length by the Raging Nathans, arrives with no grand design—at least not at first. “I didn’t have any ideas at all about a concept, art, title or anything other than just the songs,” admits Josh Goldman. The breakthrough came in a BW-3s with a mouth full of hot wings, when a childhood memory of a short horror story about a doomed elevator gave shape to the entire record. From there, it all clicked: title, concept, visuals.
Today’s premiere track, “Looking Out For Me,” encapsulates much of the album’s emotional throughline: disappointment, detachment, and self-preservation. “This song is about having to leave people behind,” Goldman explains. “It’s about accepting the fact that you can’t control others’ behaviors but you can control how you react to them.” It came out of a long-time friendship that dissolved as paths diverged. “I still love and have love for this person but they were holding me back… I’m done with one way streets.”
The entire record feels like this—personal but never indulgent, bitter but grounded in lived moments, often sharp-edged and shaped by necessity.
According to the band’s full track-by-track breakdown (check it out in its full glory below), “Room For One More” is an album that gathers resentment, introspection, grief, and spite into a unified tension, pushed through fast, jagged punk rock.
Goldman notes, “It’s a bitter record for sure… another angry song about specific people,” when describing “Front Toward Enemy,” a track that started off about one person and “morphed” into being about another. “I think that sometimes, in my head, the things and people I feel the need to write about I blend together into one thing.”
Some of the most direct anger is saved for “Threats and Promises,” which centers on the same person from “Looking Out For Me.” “Quite honestly this is just straight up putting everything on the table and calling them out,” Goldman says. It’s a song of confrontation and a demand for accountability. But it didn’t come together easily: a key part was accidentally recorded in the wrong key and had to be re-tracked in Goldman’s basement. “It turned out better than we expected for the trouble we had with the song but it still didn’t come out the way I envisioned it.”
Much of “Room For One More” swings between tracks penned by Goldman and guitarist Nick Hamby. “Out Of Control” and “Back To Yesterday” are rooted in Hamby’s melodic sensibility—faster, simpler, darker. Hamby prefers minimalism, Goldman says. “We get a good laugh out of other bands’ complicated lyrics which he deems ‘unnecessary.’”
Hamby’s contributions balance the more narrative-driven material Goldman tends to bring. “If I Want You To Hate Me” surprised the band with its lyrical bitterness. “He had been going through some shit and personally it was good to hear him get some stuff off of his chest,” Goldman comments. The song’s bridge is singled out as especially effective—“it doesn’t lose any steam or take the song in a weird direction.”
The collaborative dynamics of the band shine most in “Nick At Nite,” a song constructed more collectively than usual. “I find that a lot of the songs that we work on together are some of my favorites,” Goldman says. “Musicians are often stubborn like that… but the results, especially when agreed upon, have been positive.”
“Learning The Hard Way,” written just before entering the studio, caused friction internally. “I remember getting into an argument with Christian about it because he just straight up didn’t want to learn it,” Goldman says bluntly. But it made it on the record, another notch in a project defined as much by tension as it is by catharsis.
The record closes with “Edited For Time And Content,” a song about endings and mortality. “What if I just was never able to do anything else that ever mattered?” Goldman asks. “It’s depressing but you always think there’s gonna be another song or another show or another chance… but one day it does all stop.”
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Artwork ties everything together, a collaboration with illustrator Eric Baskauskas, aka Wall of Youth. The cover, inspired by a mix of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” and Thrasher magazine prison art, features the band in an elevator. The back cover pays tribute to former bandmate Eric Dunn, who died by suicide. “There’s a collage of Eric which is the focal point of the back cover, there’s an elevator shaft behind him… it just really does justice to the whole concept of ‘Room For One More’.”
One small but searing visual detail stands out: the Rad Girlfriend Records logo altered to read “Dead Friend.” It’s a raw gesture in a record that doesn’t pretend to heal anything, but makes a strong case for documenting every wound anyway.
“Eric Baskauskas is versatile in his approach and he is one of the most thorough and deliberate artist that I have ever had the pleasure of working with.”
“We have a very good understanding and communication in our working relationship and I really trust him with my visions for what the art should be as well as his own. Once the idea for the album started falling into place, the art came right with it. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” had these very disturbing black and white illustrations that were almost as memorable if not more so, than the stories in the book.”
“Since “Room For One More” had to do with an elevator crash, my idea was to have us in an elevator. I always liked art that incorporated real photographs with illustrations so I decided that’s where I wanted to go with this. The first album that came to mind for inspiration was “Riches to Rags” by RKL. I also drew inspiration from Thrasher magazine. I would read letters from inmates that wrote into Thrasher and they would always include these crazy and amazing drawings.”
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“Prison art is pretty distinct and I really liked the way it looks and the tone it sets. We got our friend Zach George to take some photos of us in our old practice space because it had this really old, tiny elevator. Those shots didn’t turn out so great but the one on the cover was in front of the door to the practice room and the angle that it was shot at does a pretty good job of making it look like we are in an elevator. I was able to pitch all of these things to Eric and we took our time. We spitballed a lot going back and forth between us and developed our ideas until they incorporated everything that we both had envisioned for the record. Where he went above and beyond was the back cover. I didn’t have very many ideas but I wanted to pay some kind of tribute to our former bandmate Eric Dunn, who had committed suicide earlier that year. I told Eric B. about the idea and I cited the illustrations in the Stephen King book “Wizard and Glass”.”
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“What he came up with blew me away. His attention to detail is always spot on. There’s a collage of Eric which is the focal point of the back cover, there’s an elevator shaft behind him… It just really does justice to the whole concept of “Room For One More”. The thing that really got me is he took the logo for Rad Girlfriend Records and crossed out “Rad Girl” and wrote “DEAD” above it so it says “Dead Friend”. Heavy shit. If anyone reading this gets a chance, please check out Wall of Youth.”
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The Raging Nathans will release “Room For One More” on May 16 via Rad Girlfriend Records in the US, Brassneck Records in the UK/Europe, and Thousand Islands Records in Canada. The band just wrapped a tour with Dead Kennedys and will be appearing at Pouzza Fest alongside Chad Price.
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Below you can find a Spotify playlist of songs that directly influenced the record and the band’s full track by track commentary!
ROOM FOR ONE MORE
I usually have a pretty good idea of where a record is going. For this one, I was totally stumped. I didn’t’t have any ideas at all about a concept, art, title or anything other than just the songs. It was really bothering me because the ideas just weren’t coming. The album was finished and I still had nothing. I’ve experienced “writers block” before but I had never previously had any trouble coming up with a direction for an album. One night I was eating chicken wings at a restaurant and it all hit me at once. I started thinking about this story from when I was a kid called “Room For One More”. It’s about this guy who sees these people in an elevator and they tell him that there’s “room for one more”. He declines and the elevator crashes. Everything about the record fell into place in one weird instant with my mouth full of chicken at BW-3s. The art, the concept, the title… it’s so weird how it happens like that sometimes. Maybe it was the hot sauce.
THE GRUDGE
This song was originally called “Whatever” but after writing the lyrics, I knew it had to be changed. The guys in the band don’t like the new title but I find it to be a much better than the old one. There’s a video of us playing this song after I had come up with the name but hadn’t told them yet. I say ‘This song is called “The Grudge”’ and you can hear Nick Hamby say “ha oh yeah, it is?” Into the mic. Though I wrote the lyrics, Christian wrote the music for this one and I knew right away after hearing the demo of this song that this was going to be the intro track and first single. I find it to have some very powerful parts and I love the breakdown at the end. It reminds me of old Hot Water Music. The lyrics are about a person that I hate and my inability to let it go, hence the name.
LOOKING OUT FOR ME
If you’ve listened to the band long enough, you can tell who wrote which song. It’s kind of a fun guessing game to play but once you know whose personality you’re listening for, it’s not too hard to figure it out. To me, Nick has a very distinct style of songwriting and I think that I do too. This one is very much a classic “me” song. Straightforward and to the point with a very standard structure. This song is about having to leave people behind.
It’s about accepting the fact that you can’t control others behaviors but you can control how you react to them. Its about accepting responsibility for who you are and the decisions that you made to get you there and not blaming other people for why your life is so fucked up. In particular, this is about someone I was very close with. We were on two different paths in life and unfortunately things deteriorated to the point that I had to make the decision to walk away from a friendship that I held close for many, many years.
I still love and have love for this person but they were holding me back from becoming the person I needed to be. It’s sad and it hurts but at this point in my life I don’t have the time or energy to be around people that aren’t in my corner. I’m done with one way streets.
MISERY & CO.
This is a rare occasion that Christian had both the lyrics and the music for this song. With the exceptions of “Go to Sleep’ from our split 7” with Starter Jackets, “Big Mouth” from “Oppositional Defiance” and “Fuck You” from our split with Reaganomics, I have typically written the lyrics to most of the songs Christian brings to the table. I changed a few things in his lyrics to more align with what I interpreted the song to be about. I think Christians idea was to have it be about politics and it absolutely works in that capacity. I’ve never really been good about writing political songs, I draw more from personal experiences so I tweaked a few words in this one to kind of make it more personal. I love how gritty and mean the vocals get in certain parts. I also think that the call and response in the choruses do a great deal for the song and I find it to be a quite enjoyable part of the tune. Christians vocals are a lot more prominent on this record and this song in particular is where we can really start hearing him dig in with some of his vocal contributions.
OUT OF CONTROL
Just as a song like “Looking Out For Me” has very distinct Josh Goldman traits, “Out Of Control” is very much a classic Nick Hamby song. This song was one of the original demos we had for this record early on. There were a handful of songs that we had demoed live in my basement shortly after “Still Spitting Blood” came out and this was one of them. Nick has a particular style that is unique and while it’s usually upfront on almost all of our records, this is the first appearance of one of his songs on this album. It is a welcome return to what I would consider to be the sound that people associate with this band. The tempo is fast and the lyrics are bitter and introspective. I appreciate Nick’s lyrics because he finds a lot of value in keeping it simple. We get a good laugh out of other bands complicated lyrics which he deems “unnecessary”. I sometimes disagree with that notion but I love his perspective on it. Nick had a lot of personal struggles during the making of this record and you can ascertain that from his lyrics. Usually the amount of songs we each have on a record are split down the middle but this record has a lot of Josh songs on it. Where as “Still Spitting Blood” was a pretty Nick-centric record as I was going through a bunch of shit during that one and was kind of checked out. It’s good to have someone you can rely on to pick up the slack when things are going to shit.
FRONT TOWARD ENEMY
Another angry song about specific people. It’s interesting how a song for me can often start off about one thing or person and gradually kind of morph into being about something or someone else. I think that sometimes, in my head, the things and people I feel the need to write about I blend together into one thing and that allows me a certain freedom to write what feel like very specific things-while not necessarily being about one particular thing at all. (Im sure that doesn’t make very much sense)This is a bitter record for sure and if you didn’t figure it out by now, you should definitely pick up on it after this one. The title is what it says on land mines. This is another me (Josh) song. My favorite part is the subtle lead lines that kind of mimic the vocals through the whole song. I find that both guitars playing off of each other really does a lot for the texture of the song and really makes it work. It’s a good song to dissect if someone wanted to really understand the way Nick and I work together in terms of guitar work. The lyrics really speak for themselves, there’s no mincing words or attitudes on this one. The problem is vague but the solution is clear.
BACK TO YESTERDAY
Quite possibly the best song on the album. This is a Nick song through and through. He has a real ability to write quite an ear worm. This song was also one of the first couple tunes that we had demoed early on. It’s very catchy, the lyrics are simple and it has a dark melancholy quality to it. The bass line on the verses is one of my favorites on the entire album. I am a solid rhythm guitar player, that’s my job and I’m good at it. But I do come up with a lot of complimentary second guitar parts, leads and every once in a while, a solo. Since I don’t know much about what’s actually going on on a guitar, I have to rely on my ear and my limited knowledge of a fret board when carefully crafting a solo. I knew I wanted to write a solo for this song once we started practicing it. So I took everything I know about guitar and wrote a very mediocre solo BUT I think I did a pretty good job. When I hear it I don’t put my fingers in my ears. I even got a compliment from the rest of my band. Gonna take the pats on the back where I can get em.
NICK AT NITE
If there was a direction that I could help move the band along in, it would be towards songs like this. It focuses a little more on guitar work than a lot of the other ones. I remember that I had most of the song completed but I was stuck at the bridge or some point towards the end of the song. I brought it to practice and we figured the rest out as a band. I find that a lot of the songs that we work on together are some of my favorites.
That process is such a departure from what we usually do because most of the time, whoever has the song has it completely fleshed out and written or completely demoed out. It takes a bit of adjustment, especially for me, to be open enough to letting everyone else pitch in on the writing or structure of the song.
Musicians are often stubborn like that, and I get it because when you create something and you hear it one way, it’s often difficult to accept that someone else could hear something different. But, in those instances, it’s been beneficial to be open minded enough to let my band members help because the results, especially when agreed upon, have been positive. This song is about a someone close to me that was having a hard time.
There’s still an element of anger to this one but it’s more of a frustration that I couldn’t help the situation. I Don’t think I know how to write a happy song. Our friend Robert Pollard from Guided By Voices sings on the choruses. Our friend Evan Wolff made a fantastic music vide for this.
IF I WANT YOU TO HATE ME
Nick song. Another one that we had early on for this record. It was just the music for a long time and I think we were all surprised at the tone of the lyrics when he finally got around to writing them. But like I said, he had been going through some shit and personally it was good to hear him get some stuff off of his chest. This song has some classic Nick traits- some single note breaks, it’s fast and the bridge is solid. The bridge is such a delicate thing, it can make or break a song so easily and Nick does a fantastic job on this song of creating a bridge that doesn’t lose any steam or take the song in a weird direction. That’s a hard thing to do. This is one of the more straightforward and to the point songs on this record and I like it for that.
THREATS AND PROMISES
It’s not often that someone gets to be the subject of more than one song on a record but this one is about the same person as “Looking Out For Me”. Quite honestly this is just straight up putting everything on the table and calling them out. I love the lyrics, they are honest, very specific and the title does a great job of summing up exactly what this song is. It places blame right at the feet of the subject of the song and asks at what point are they going to grow the fuck up and accept responsibility for their life. This is one of the longest songs I’ve ever written. Usually I can trim it down but I couldn’t on this one.
I felt like everything needed to be there. It’s also one that really starts with the chorus which is unusual for this band. This song in particular was the one I was looking most forward to recording although it didn’t exactly go as planned. For whatever reason, we just couldn’t nail it in the studio. We kept trying but we were not really capturing the feeling of the demo or the way it felt practicing it live. When the song was finished, we were listening to it and something was just wrong and off.
Turns out we had recorded the bridge in a different key and for some reason no one could figure out what was off or why we did that and how we didn’t notice at the time. It was totally insane. At that point there was no real way to fix it other than rerecording that part by ourselves.
So, Nick and I re-recorded the bridge in my basement, guitar vocals and all. It turned out better than we expected for the trouble we had with the song but it still didn’t come out the way I envisioned it. It’s too bad because it’s one of my favorite songs on the record. I feel it could’ve resonated with people a lot more than it does. Nobody’s fault…sometimes it just happens that way.
OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GLOAT
This song was our attempt at writing a “No Control” style Bad Religion song. That was the goal. I wrote the lyrics, Nick wrote the music. The songs that we split duties like this often end up being some of my favorites – like “One Day Closer” from “Oppositional Defiance”. It’s a ripper for sure but again, like Threats and Promises, there was just something about it that I feel like we didn’t get right. I love the lyrics on the second verse and we nailed some of the “oohs and ahhs” and altogether as an experiment to see if we could write a sick BR style song, I think we succeeded.
I wish we would have taken some more time in the mixing process to get everything right, but whatever. Everyone was getting burned out by this point and were a fucking punk band. It shouldn’t be perfect no matter how good you expect it to be. We are flawed, the record should reflect that and it does. Also, most of this things I worry about the average listener will never notice anyways.
LEARNING THE HARD WAY
I wrote this song towards the very end, in fact I think we had already booked the studio time. I remember getting into an argument with Christian about it because he just straight up didn’t want to learn it. Not sure what his problem was other than being lazy but he did learn it and we did record it and it did end up on the album. It’s a solid song, I wrote the music and lyrics.
EDITED FOR TIME AND CONTENT
Another one where Nick wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics. I took the title from when they would show movies on cable tv. It would always say “edited for time and content”. This is one of my favorite songs on the record, every time I hear it, it flies by. The lyrics could be interpreted a few different ways but in the end it’s about time and how everything eventually comes to an end. It’s a scary thing to think about but what if I just was never able to do anything else that ever mattered?
What if nothing I do matters anyways? It’s depressing but you always think there’s gonna be another song or another show or another chance… but one day it does all stop. I think this song is just about doing the best you can while you can and appreciating what you have in the moment because there are no guarantees in life other than certain death.
The Raging Nathans Tour Dates:
5/10 – Sandusky, OH @ Sandusky Wheels Skatepark (Early Show) – Free!
5/10 – Chicago, IL @ Liars Club
w/Chad Price Peace Coalition
5/11 – Champaign, IL @ The Space
5/12 – Cleveland, OH @ No Class
5/13 – Ft. Wayne, IN @ Ft. Wayne Guitar Exchange
5/14 – Detroit, MI @ Garden Bowl
5/15 – Toronto, ON @ Baby G
5/16 – Tillsonburg, ON @ Paddys Underground
5/17 – Montreal, QC @ Pouzza Fest
