NEW FORMS have been striving to push their own boundaries in terms of chaotic songwriting and their debut 6-track EP certainly proves it. The whole thing clocks in at 6.5 minutes and was recorded over the course of 4 days in August 2019 in Manchester, NH by the band’s friend Alex Salter. Today, we’re giving you the first full spin of this brief offering, designed with a careful chaos-oriented feel to achieve experimental objectives and give a proper nod to New England’s all-encompassing, frantic hardcore and screamo bands that set out the path for many bands of modern generations.
Our goal as a band is to create controlled chaos. we put all of this frenetic energy into writing quick, devastating songs that allow us to exert all of our pent up confliction about the current political state, climate concerns, and other things we feel hopeless about. We all have loved screamo for a long time and have been so excited with the recent surge in interest in the genre, but we wanted to make sure we aren’t falling into common tropes and continue to make music that challenges us and that we find interesting.
Catch the band live at the following gigs:
11.7 w/ State Faults, Dreamwell, Northern Life
11.9 w/ Foxtails, Let’s Get Invisible, & more
“I Don’t Want To Live My Life Again” EP comes out November 1st via Larry Records, introduced to our pages through this feature about YUSUKE.
NEW FORMS are: Lee (vocals): played in Waking Life, a band ft members of Youth Funeral that only wrote one song (that is so so sick); Justin (guitar): played in Alessa, an OG new hampshire screamo band from 2007-2011; Travis (bass): played in Youth Funeral on every release besides Heavenward and their 2 song ep I Would Do It All Again; Chris (drums): played in emo revival band Casper Elgin.
For fans of: Capsule, Nuvolascura, Ampere, Eyelet, Daughters.
Album art/photo by the band’s guitarist, Justin.
Fortunato:
This is a very dynamic song, which is why we chose it as the opener on the ep. the lyrics are about the feeling of futility and depression of surviving in a late stage capitalist society.
Sometimes the flowers arrange themselves:
We started writing this song the first time we jammed together, and kept coming back to it and reworking parts as we grew more comfortable and familiar with each others’ writing styles. lyrically, this is a reminder to always be fighting with conviction for what’s important. our future depends us taking action now and we need this reminder every day.
Spirals:
Just a fun riff. we transposed and slowed down the tempo on a yet to be released song and threw some very Native inspired drums under it. this song was written in about two minutes.
Transitions in meta:
Probably our thrashiest song to date; we were really pushing ourselves to write something really technical while still retaining some semblance of melody. this song is about being stuck replaying the past when times were better, but also wallowing in the regret of our mistakes our only choice is to accept our mistakes & learn from them, then we can grow.
Ember twin & [redacted]:
I think this is collectively our favorite song to play. the lyrics came from reading about a secret FB group of ICE officers mocking and laughing at a picture of an immigrant mother & her child lying dead face down in a ditch. and then they go to work the next day destroying families and pretend they’re making the country safer.
Travis, Lee, and Chris all met in highschool through the school’s marching band, we were all on the drumline together. We’ve stayed friends since graduating back in 2012/2013 and met Justin on r/screamo when we posted about looking for a guitarist who wanted to make a band sounding like L’antietam. We ended up jamming and shifted our sound tremendously, but I still feel like you can hear some of the signature New England screamo sound in our music (like bands like Ampere, Daniel Striped Tiger, L’antietam, etc).
Lyrics:
1. fortunato
no more complacency or lack of deniability
is it progress losing ourselves in the process?
skin bags and flags as we shift our weight
our muscles ache
and the mind becomes empty of desire
while we reflect on the privilege
that at least we’re not the next to starve
the sculptor’s hands worn to the bone,
constructing a monument
atop a crumbling foundation
2. sometimes the flowers arrange themselves
we’ll draw far, hold and fire
and let our arrows black out the sky
raining down on everything we know
as time flows ever forward
this longing will never cease
to fan the flames of discontent
and take back what is ours
until our legs give out
we must march forever
longing for that golden sunset
where meek hearts no longer
hang heavy in the dusk of despair
with our anger we must grow wings
the future is upon us
Continued below…
4. transitions in meta
shattered fragments
of loss echo within
forest of dead trees reveal
splendor of a past life
as it used to be
breathing in smoke
coughing up blood
wandering thoughts tethered to
a graveyard of poor choices
until new forms take root
beneath the ashes
5. ember twin
makes humans into monsters
through callous observation
when the abuse is common practice
“comfort” – at the cost of safety
sunstained backs caked in blood and sweat
faces imprinted into hot sand
don’t say you care about anyone at all
