Recently I was able to connect with Alternative Rock band, Alex Cherney & The Brothers Nylon, to discuss the news surrounding their fourth full-length record, MAGNETIZED. While the album drops on July 10th, today the band is sharing the lead single, “Good Life Crisis,” that is a great encapsulation of what this band is capable of creating. If you’re enjoying the interview, please consider pre-saving MAGNETIZED here.
Thanks for your time today! You are gearing up to release the first single from your new LP called MAGNETIZED. What’s the meaning behind the album title?
Magnetized has a few meanings for us! Primarily, we wanted to give an ode to the process of recording this album – fully analog on an 8-track Tascam 388 tape machine. The analog process is literally magnetic, so in a sense Magnetized is a result of hearing this album. It’s a feeling of being very close to the original sound source – a feeling we carried all the way from songwriting to final sound – an intimacy. We also liked the idea of pulling the listener in aka magnetizing, and it felt like a classic 90s album title (which is the dominant sound of this record).
How does your band typically do most of its songwriting? Can you walk me through your process?
Up to this point, it’s been a different process for each album. Sometimes I’ll start with a melody & chords, other times Mike & Nick have a full fledged instrumental. We do a lot of remote collaboration / sending ideas and files back and forth, but bring things to their final form in person in the studio. For Magnetized, I wrote the base songs for all (lyrics / melody / chords) and we fleshed them out during our in person studio session. We knew we wanted to stay true to a 90s sound and only had 8 tracks for each song. So that limitation influenced our arrangements. For example, we might have added some extra delay and reverb to a sustained lead guitar to fill up certain sections in a song as opposed to relying on lots of track layers and overdubs. We started the recording of each song as a trio instrumental (never with a click track). Typically this was Mike on drums, Nick on bass and me on rhythm guitar. Then we would add in the other elements, the order depending on what felt like should go next. Vocals are an exciting challenge on tape because ideally they are tracked in a single take.
Where do you find most of your inspiration to make music?
It comes from lots of places, I’m not sure I know where a lot of my ideas really come from, as they will sort of pop into my head as melodies, riffs or phrases and I’ll record voice memos to remember them. But I do find that I often get inspired to write music when life has been hitting in a certain way. During great times, harder ones. For this album in particular it was a bit harder of a time for me learning to process a new blood condition I developed and taking some time to reflect on the state of my life. But it depends on the album. Our last album Pool Party, is a disco concept album, so a lot of those songs started with a theme. But I always try and infuse something relatable to me in the lyrics and melody – it’s really the only way I know how to write songs I can connect with.
What do you hope your fans will feel when they hear MAGNETIZED for the first time in full?
I hope they can connect on a deep level to at least a few of the tunes, and also to enjoy the sound and tracklisting all the way through. We put a lot of time and thought into that part (shoutout to Ben Etter who mixed the record) and wanted to make a classic album in a 90s alternative style. We also hope fans feel some nostalgia towards the 90s, a simpler lifestyle, and maybe even carry some of the energy we present in these songs into their current lives.
