This past Thursday, I got to sit down with my hometown heroes, The Frights. Hailing from San Diego, CA, The Frights are on tour for their new album, You Are Going To Hate This. This album is a big departure from their previous album and EPs. Before their show, I sat in the back of their van with singer and guitarist, Mikey Carnevale, bassist Richard Dotson, and drummer Marc Finn and asked them about their new sound, old songs, and San Diego beach hangouts.
What was the motivation for changing your sound so much from your first album to now?
Marc Finn: Wanting to be a real band.
Mikey Carnevale: I had songs written… they were already definitely different because at the time about two years had passed. When we took them to Zac [Carper, lead singer of FIDLAR], everything just started changing… Without noticing what we were doing it kind of just started just taking the pace of like, every song ended up being different. So, because we didn’t have an idea in mind for the record, we end up having a record with ten very different songs. It was probably more of a subconscious thing but there was definitely a conscious effort to say, "Hey, let’s spice things up."
MF: Zac was a huge part of this. Like not being afraid to have the song itself stay the same but to have what mood it gave off or what instruments we used or like even just how we played it. Zac really gave us the encouragement to just experiment a lot.
Richard Dotson: We all went into it with really open minds, we all wanted to see what we could do with the songs.
Why did you choose to revisit “Kids” and “Tungs?"
MC: Every song that we redid was off an EP or a single and they had all done really well by themselves and they were all fun songs that we were still playing at the point when we recorded the new record. So it was songs that were still fresh, you could do more with them because if we’re gonna leave our whole lo-fi thing behind, it felt good to bring those songs along too.
What was the scariest part about this change?
MC: Kids are scary, people are scary. In LA and in the whole burger fuckin' scene, the bubble out there, that’s just exploding right now, everyone is very like “you gotta do it this way or it’s fucking lame.”
RD: They’re really loyal to a certain idea.
MC: Yeah they are, you know if it’s not lo-fi enough or dirty enough or gross enough or just shitty, then they won’t like it. So if you change, anything that they knew before, then you’re putting yourself in a position for people to be like “what the fuck happened to 'The Frights?'” So that was what was scary, it wasn’t scary doing it--it was fun as fuck.
MF: I mean, it was the best process I’ve ever gone through. I think that we’ve all ever gone through.
MC: I think in some ways we actually had that mindset. But then it was like yeah we should change, we should really fucking change. We’re not fucking 18 anymore.
RD: Yeah and it felt so natural and good too, our new songs, like they’re so different, but I relate to this way more than I related to the songs we were playing two and a half years ago. This is more attuned to our mindsets now.
Did your demographic change with how your music has changed?
MC: It broadened. I think there are more people who like us now who never would have before because our old stuff was shitty and it was shitty because we wanted it to sound that way.
MF: It’s been interesting so far because with this record it’s basically the first time we’ve been outside of California seriously for a while and hearing people in these different cities talk about the new record as if this has been our sound all along has been pretty refreshing. There’s not any weird baggage or whatever.
RD: And I think we were just expecting the worst.
MF: SWMRS kind of went through the same thing we did but they were so badass about it, they were like “we changed everything but didn’t tell anyone about it so we could keep all our social media followers” and that was hilarious and so fucking badass
I have a little bit of a fan question for you guys, my friend Austin who introduced me to your music wanted to know what your favorite beaches or hangouts are back in San Diego?
MC: Garbage Beach, it’s a little local secret, you have to go down a couple ropes to get down there. Have you been there?
Nah, but I’ve had a couple friends tell me about it.
RD: Legends, those local San Diego haunts.
MF: Public locations though, like non-super secret… I like Torrey Pines beach. Do you have a haunt Richard?
RD: Uhh, no, I don’t really remember hanging out outside too much.
MF: This is the first time Richard’s seen daylight in 21 years.
RD: It’s been a wild ride. I mean, there’s places in Northpark or like record stores in Hillcrest are cool.
What non-musical influences that impacted your song writing or your band?
MC: For this record specifically it was real life stuff, like paying bills and growing up. It’s different from when we were 18 and the only things that mattered were girls, partying, the beach, and girls. Now it’s more about real life shit. Like how to pay rent
