Indie-pop duo, Strangers In Suits – comprised of Victor Benjovsky and Josh Owczarzak – have released their highly-anticipated debut album, Where Do We Go From Here?, today and listeners are in for a dazzling treat!
Drawing influence from The Band CAMINO to LANY and The 1975, Where Do We Go From Here? is a stunning debut from start to finish, keeping listeners on their toes with tales of love, heartbreak, nostalgia and the strength it takes to move on and start anew. Where do they go from here? With a debut like this, the sky’s the limit.
We asked the band to dive deeper into each track off of Where Do We Go From Here? for this exclusive track-by-track commentary! Enjoy and don’t forget to press play below!
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“ily”
Where Do We Go From Here? kicks off with an intro track titled ‘ily.’ We wanted to set the mood for the record and get the listener in the right frame of mind to consume the whole 12 track record in a cohesive fashion. We also wanted to set the expectation for what the soundscape of the record would be. Buried in the intro track is the name of the record too, so keep those ears open.
“Someone Else”
“Someone Else” was one of the first songs we wrote as Strangers In Suits about a year and a half ago or so. Throughout this whole project, this song has been the one that has changed the most, probably. Channeling our inner 80s pop souls, we brought this one to life. It feels like this is one of those tunes that could just so happen to end up on Stranger Things (hey, hey, Netflix…hit us up??) “Someone Else” chronicles a relationship wherein you become a version of yourself that you end up not recognizing. Navigating life in your teens and 20s is already hard enough, then we add into it all the social pressures to go do “the right thing” and go to school, be someone’s lover, get married, start a family, etc. and this song came about from all those feelings, but especially the strain that relationships can put on someone – no matter what stage of life they’re in.
“Tongue Tied”
Ahhh “Tongue Tied” – a personal favorite. If anyone out there is a fan of WALK THE MOON, then I think you’ll genuinely enjoy this song. This one honestly didn’t change a whole ton from demo to final master. What you’re hearing in the record is about 95% of what we had in the demo, which is a rarity. “Tongue Tied” came about after moving across the country and finding my way in a new city with new friends. You know those friends that end up being more than friends? Yeah, that’s how this one came to be…getting tripped up with my words around a certain someone who has become a significant person in my life. We’ve all been there, yeah? In post-production we decided to add a four on the floor kick to really drive the chorus almost in a “club” sense to make the listener feel the thud and thump. Can definitely see this being one that a DJ could take the stems from, speed up some parts and make it an absolutely kicking dance tune.
“West Coast Time”
The first of a few absolutely laid back, chill out, late night drive songs. “West Coast Time” is a pretty straightforward song in the meaning department. Moving across the country from New York to Arizona and leaving everything I knew behind was a tough thing to get through at first. Leaving family, friends, relationships…none of it was easy and all of that really impacted how this song came to life. All I know is, you’ll catch yourself screaming along with the bridge, because we have ourselves…MANY a times already!
“All Alone”
“All Alone” was born off of an idea to have a rock type ballad that wasn’t truly a ballad ballad, you know? We tapped into our inner rock music, guitar hero minds and came out with an absolutely banging rock ballad that has a little bit of everything, including a must have solo in a song like this. “All Alone” actually came about with one line, that was set aside in a “trash” pile from years ago in a different project. That line is “I keep a Polaroid in my pocket from the days we’d sing along / To every word from ‘Chocolate’.” And once we started kicking that line around, we kind of just came up with the premise of “well, if this is going to be more ballady, let’s make it so the subject is now singing all of those words alone” and it all just fell into place from there between the rest of the lyrics and music. We also thought it’d be cool to put a spin on the absolutely ICONIC scene from Say Anything… of being outside your lover’s window with a boombox. Did it work? Who knows, but we do know that a music video would probably be our take on the movie…which, might be kinda cool?
“Stuck On You”
Ahhh the summer heartbreak anthem for the MASSES! This little number was written in 2 hours during a morning writing session with some friends in Nashville. Had a basic Maggie Rogers inspired drum beat and then summoned some creative energies of The Band CAMINO and came out with a song that One Direction and Taylor Swift would be damn proud of. “Stuck On You” kind of just fell out of the sky at us; once the opening line was written, we were full steam ahead and before we knew it, it was done. It centers around this idea that no matter how you look at the situation of how things ended, it just doesn’t make sense in your head. You want to move on, but for whatever reason, you just can’t. Inadvertently, after we wrote and recorded it, people had said oh, it sounds like “Perfect” by One Direction and/or “Style” by Taylor Swift. Upon further inspection, “Stuck On You” very well could be the sequel to “Perfect” if you think about it… “Perfect” is all about convincing this person that you’re right for them and all that, and “Stuck On You” is like the, ‘okay it happened and here’s what went down but how did it all go wrong when it all seemed so perfect?’ Little food for thought…
“idk”
We thought the voicemail was a cool touch to this interlude track. So far through the record it has been a lot of hitting the breaking points in a relationship and a lot of splits and break ups. The sampled voicemail just fit so perfectly into what this record was made around, thematically. This seemed like the logical spot in the record to take a little break from a full song and just let our listeners enjoy a small instrumental break. We’ve always loved seamless records and records that had interludes that flow into the next song (hint, hint).
“H8 Missin U”
This song took maybe a day to completely write and produce. This was a very last minute addition to the record. Like literally we were about to cut down to a 10 track LP and then this song fell out of the ethers and next thing you know we have a song AND interlude with it. This is about just hitting that point of missing someone so much that it hurts. It’s that feeling of “the only thing I can think about is how much I miss you” and how that feeling can distract you from your current life. We wrote this with one of our buddies and co-writing partners, Philip Hommes. Such a good dude and writer! Going to plug Netflix again here because, DAMN this would be a great tune to use at a coming of age scene, if you ask us.
“IDFY”
This one is the opposite of what the previous track is. “IDFY” turns the page into professing your true love for the person who’s been constantly shooting you down and how you just can’t let it go and have to throw a last ditch effort at saving whatever this thing was because you know it can be great, but it just hasn’t been lately. This is another one of those “rare” songs where things didn’t change too drastically from demo to master. When we first started writing “IDFY” we just knew that we wanted it to smack you in the face with a massive wall of guitars reminiscent of 80s hair metal. If you listen to this tune at max volume and stand directly in front of your speakers, I’m about 99% sure that you will feel your hair physically move when the guitars hit, like in a cartoon. With all of these songs we were trying to evoke a certain emotion from the listeners’ perspective and we just hope that everyone feels the same as we do about this one because this one was a really fun one to tackle.
“No You”
Following up the page turn in “IDFY” comes the realization that this person has officially moved on and it’s time for you to start learning to live without them and figure things out on your own. At its core, “No You” is a very emotional, vocally driven ballad that expresses the difficulties of almost being forced to move on to the next chapter of your life without this person by your side.
“California Feeling”
A powerful, guitar driven ballad type tune that plays on the “what ifs” of a love gone wrong. The idea of California feeling isn’t really describing anything in particular, but more or less that feeling of elation when you’re with a person that you love, even if it is just for a short time or if it’s a visit or whatever it may be. It’s really examining how, if you had unlimited time or could stop time in this utopia that is evoked by California feeling, everything would be perfect. It’s almost a yearning to freeze this moment forever and go back to it when you need to escape.
“Home To You”
This song was put on the back burner for a long, long time. We didn’t know what we wanted to do with it. But it is a deeply, deeply personal song to both of us. While it doesn’t wholly fit with the “theme” of the record, the content of the song just felt like it needed to be put out there. We wrote this song just coming off of all of the long hours, time away from loved ones, traveling for work…all those things that we both have to do and sacrifice for our personal passions and pursuits within music and outside of music with our day jobs. The lyrical content behind the song is paying the people that support you through thick and thin their dues. It’s not easy being a musician in an independent band trying to make it AND working a full time job. It’s not easy being on the road to play shows. It’s not easy being away from everything you love to be in a van, or a hotel room, or flying all over the country for whatever job you may have that requires you to do that. Some people want the finer things in life and some people look to the future, while at the end of the day, all we want is to be back home with our loved ones when we’ve been on the road for far too long. What people don’t realize about musicians, and people who travel for work in general, is that it is quite lonely, contrary to popular belief. We just wanted to write this for all those who have believed in us, pushed us and have been our biggest fans. We see you. We hear you. We will never forget about you. And we love you.
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