“The things I’m trying to say specifically, I do.”Īn accomplished poet, even on written releases like Words From A Porch and October (work he considers “a less high-stakes branch in the same tree” to his musical career) Jeremy refuses to view the everyday through an overly-abstract lens. “I think it comes from being very direct,” Jeremy reasons, simply. I’m going to be as honest as I possibly can.”Įven compared to the bands with whom Jeremy grew up, however, there is an autobiographical clarity about Touché to which fans cling. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it 100 per cent. “All of my favourite music is music that I feel deep in my soul. The surging, heart-wrenching music provided by his bandmates – guitarists Nick Steinhardt and Clayton Stevens, drummer Elliot Babin and bassist Tyler Kirby – was always integral, but Jeremy appreciates their hands-off approach in allowing him to say what needs to be said. When it came to Touché Amoré, inauthenticity was anathema. “I was such a sucker for that stuff,” Jeremy reminisces. 99 and Orchid, with any number of gritty floor shows with singers on their knees, crying with their backs to the crowd. The screamo scene of the late-1990s/early-2000s fed that need, throwing up bands like Saetia, Pg. The music in my life that has connected to me the most is from those artists that I connected with on a deep, personal level.”Ī child of the Los Angeles suburbs, Jeremy was never overawed by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, but instead strove for the opposite of La La Land’s hollow facade. I was a fanatic for them because was singing about very personal things, and I connected. “With Thursday, whenever Full Collapse was coming out, I made a fan page for them before they had a website of their own. “I’ve been that fan that goes up to the singer to tell them how much their music means to me,” he grins, knowingly. But this conversation that I’m constantly having to have… I’m genuinely honoured if anyone gets anything from my music or was able to feel less alone. “I don’t think I’ll ever escape it,” he smiles, wryly. Jeremy reckons it impacted the flow of messages for perhaps two weeks. Dropping all the way back on September 10, 2019, excellent early single Deflector touched on the message: ‘ That’s too personal / I’m too delicate…’ This September’s I’ll Be Your Host was more blunt in its plea for interpersonal understanding: ‘ Pin a black ribbon on, we're the mourning campaign / I didn't ask to lead this party, I explain…’ When it came to moving on with fifth album Lament, redressing the balance was a key objective. The world just hits you with these things.” “It was the next day that I got the news. “Our last conversation was him telling me he was so stoked to do it,” Jeremy says, with evident sadness. The unevenness of the emotional exchange was overwhelming, especially as he shouldered losses closer to home, from pet dogs Melissa and Marianne to – most recently – good friend and Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, who was supposed to appear in that Reminders video. Songs meant to help heal had sparked a situation where, on the daily, Jeremy was scratching at scars. I live in such jealousy of the other guys who can walk through a crowd at a show who will get a high five or a, ‘Good show!’ – while I walk through and get, ‘My sister died of brain cancer last week…’” “It’s hard having to stomach tragic story after tragic story while sometimes being asked advice when I absolutely don’t have the answers. But, even in my friend group, there were people who found it too much to even listen to. There were people who found solace in it, connected to it, had a deep personal relationship with it. When the record came out, there was such a mixed reaction to it. “Stage Four was a necessity,” Jeremy reflects. Drawn from the pain, numbness and guilt thrown up in death’s immediate aftermath, it was arguably the finest post-hardcore release of the 2010s: a searingly cathartic, unprecedentedly frank chronicle so openly wounded that many listeners couldn’t help reciprocate. Still, astonishing 2016 LP Stage Four was a watershed. “I don’t think I’m unique in any sort of way in being an artist who writes about personal feelings and having people say, ‘Your song helped me through depression,’ or, ‘Your band saved my life.’ I appreciate that, but I don’t always necessarily buy it. “It’s always been a thing,” he half-shrugs, accepting the inevitable dialogue with a fervent fanbase. Deeper in the back of his mind is a DM received not 10 minutes before we sit down, about which his emotions are less straightforward: the latest in an apparently endless stream of correspondence with bereaved followers reaching out for connection.
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