Absent Sounds: So pretty much what we've been doing for Treefort — it's kind of getting bands mid-thought. We do campus community radio, and typically each week we do an album play-through, top to bottom. But because we don't have that kind of time with you right now, we're kind of just trying to tap into your mindset right now, where you are in the present. That's the ethos of this little mini series.

Ryan Nolen: That sounds very, very timely — because I need that. We are in dire straits. Not so much from the tour, which has been amazing, but physically we've been put in a blender and spat out. There's a lot going on. It's really overwhelming. Our record came out last week, and that was really cool. People have been singing our praises and that feels very gratifying — obviously you make art for yourself, but having the validation is a cool cherry on top. However, we're at show 15 or 16 of 27 shows. We added an LA show.

Snow Ellet: Yeah, we had to add another one just to make sure we were very tired.

Ryan Nolen: And the routing has been very challenging. Today in particular has been very challenging. We went to bed at like 1, 1:30 last night and woke up at six to get here. And we've done this for about twenty-plus days. So. Talking to you both is great. This is really nice.

Absent Sounds: Nine days since the album came out. What's the most unrelated, random thing — because the thought I was having is: if you only had nine days to make something, what would you make?

Snow Ellet: Can you do sourdough in that time?

Ryan Nolen: Yeah. Right? Everyone's always talking about feeding their starter and that just goes over my head. Sourdough, I think you can do in nine days. I feel confident — but if there was a gun to my head it would be a total 50/50 call.

Snow Ellet: I'd like to make a really good New York style pizza. You crank up your oven to 500, make a really good dough for the crust. That's probably feasible in nine days. I might not even need that much time — maybe I'll just make nine of them.

Ryan Nolen: You get nine loaves.

Snow Ellet: Nine pizzas. Yeah.

Ryan Nolen: There are so many skills I want to develop in my life that I've postponed, and they take more than nine days.

Snow Ellet: You know what would take me nine days? Making like fifty dollars. I could probably manage. If I could get even twenty-five I'd be pretty happy. So if you have money, give it to this guy because he can turn it into millions.

Absent Sounds: What I wanted to shift into was — because of how weighty it feels to be touring and doing everything, that's kind of like the weight of the truth. What is that weight specifically for you guys?

Snow Ellet: What is the weight of the truth? That's a Ryan question if I've ever heard one.

Ryan Nolen: You're a child, right? And you're super innocent and untainted for the most part. And obviously your world becomes darker and darker after that, after you stop playing in the sand. In the writing period of this record, there was just a ton of uncontrollable sorrow that unfortunately happened at home. You gotta make sense of it. That's been done a zillion times in many forms of art — coping with loss, reckoning with your reality. But I feel like ours is our own brand. And that's for me the easiest channel to organize what's happening up here — through song. That's kind of why the record has that ethos and vibe.

Absent Sounds: Is there a moment where you realized — I actually am supposed to be the adult here?

Ryan Nolen: A time when you realize your lifelines are out. Whether it's a parent or sibling or an important friend — the moment of self-realization where a conflict occurs and you're like, damn, that's on me. Maybe you were so selfish all along that you thought it was a total impossibility. There have been moments where someone told me, don't do the thing, don't do the thing, don't do the thing. And then I did it. And then I was left with — it's just me here.

Snow Ellet: No one to mediate. No one to come and fucking fix it for you.

Ryan Nolen: Yeah. I regrettably spurned a friend in high school — maybe it was about a girl. He said, I like that girl, don't talk to her. I said, I love you dude, I will never talk to her. And then I went ahead and did it. Even just a two-week rift with a lifelong friend — that's eternity. That was the "uh oh, can't have it all, man." Don't do that.

Snow Ellet: I can't think of the first time it happened, but I can think of the most recent time — just a few days ago. We were in the van and I just had this realization: I am so far from home. I've toured enough, and I don't get those moments often, but I was like, I am on the other side of the country with, recurring theme, very little money in my bank account. And no one to bail me out. It's just me. Obviously I'm with my friends and my bandmates, but in that moment you're completely alone and you have to learn how to deal with that. It's a scary thought.

Ryan Nolen: An anchor for me, despite all the hurt and disaster and sorrow, is still a symbol of grounding. I inherently don't think the world is a malicious place. More people are good than bad. I use the word "pillar" a lot actually — as an anchor substitute.

Snow Ellet: You talking about the anchor pop-punk thing?

Ryan Nolen: Yeah. 2012, going into college, I knew many people who got anchor tattoos.

Snow Ellet: It was super corny. If you have that tattoo, show yourselves. Just my opinion. You were corn.

Absent Sounds: What would they be covering them up with now?

Ryan Nolen: We don't really have a trend like that anymore. No Tumblr, no property of Z, nothing like that in this little niche community of music we play. I can't think of a tattoo everyone's getting right now.

Snow Ellet: American traditional is pretty popular.

Ryan Nolen: Yeah. Just black ink, very classic. But some days I'm just like — I might get an anchor. After all this conversation I'm like, damn, I need one.

Absent Sounds: I think what I love about your band is that you show respect to the bands that came before you without hiding behind them. You're like, yeah, those are the people who influenced us, I still like them — but we're doing something new. How do you balance trying to do your own thing without letting those influences take over?

Snow Ellet: On this last record, I wrote a good amount of the music — purely the instrumentals. I will sit down and write a whole instrumental, the whole song basically done. But I need vocal melodies and I need lyrics. And in my brain I'm like, this sounds exactly like this one band. I model it heavily after certain songs I love. But the moment it gets handed off to the rest of the squad — Ryan and Andrew specifically for this last record — it just takes on a life of its own. Ryan has a unique and singular voice, and it really helps distinguish us from other bands. If it were just me, it would be a tribute band. A Godsmack tribute band. Super whack. But you marry that with someone who's insightful and actually cares about lyrics, and it turns into its own thing.

Ryan Nolen: That's always the way. And by the way — the notification that there's a new demo from Snow always comes between 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning. I'll roll out of bed and my girlfriend will be like, what are you doing? And I'm like, he just sent a demo. I'm going to listen to it.

Snow Ellet: His secret lover.

Ryan Nolen: Exactly. But that's what's kind of cool about our band — okay, this is cool, this is cool, this is cool. And through the process of creation, whether it's my riff or Snow's riff, the way it lands always ends up being us. What sucks is there are so many bands that try to copy another band and just sound exactly like them. I don't know why our unique assembly of ingredients lands as uniquely us. But apparently it does, at least for the people who know we exist. Which is still a small number that's growing.

Snow Ellet: We're making millions though, by the way.

Ryan Nolen: $10.

Snow Ellet: I have nine. He has ten. One Taco Bell order between us. $19. That's so sad.

Absent Sounds: With this record — you've put out records without a huge gap in between, which feels like a very consistent release schedule. What's the thing you feel like is still unanswered or that you're still searching?

Ryan Nolen: We've been singing those songs for a long time — the ones that came out nine days ago. And it's such a relief that people have access to them now. But I'm already feeling it wear off, and it's killing me. Like, how do we keep this going? I sincerely think our best compositional days together are ahead of us. Listening to the album, people sending it to me saying they love this song — I'm like, I could get so much deeper with what I talk about. How do we make it better? We're super tired, but we want it to work out.

Snow Ellet: I think our magnum opus lies ahead. I love this record, but I listen to it and I'm like — I know we can do better. Not because it's bad. It's good. But I want to keep pushing.

Ryan Nolen: There are problems inherently if you don't have that mentality. A lot of bands hit a winner and think they'll never do it again. Our best days are ahead of us, for sure.

Absent Sounds: What did you leave behind on this record that could have been on it?

Ryan Nolen: I really want to explore writing topics I haven't touched on — like going deeper into myself as much as I do into other people. Kind of a yin and yang. Because at the end of the day, you make art as relief for yourself. I talked about loss a lot on this record, and I really hope that's the last time we talk about loss for a while. Please spare me.

Snow Ellet: I approach the music from an instrumental standpoint, so there's nothing I want to leave behind — there are things I hope we explore musically and push further. As for lyrics, I will not lie to you, I don't think I know half the lyrics on the record. Not because they're not beautiful and amazing. I just have a really horrible memory.

Ryan Nolen: Can you cut that? Can you—

Snow Ellet: I know there's a fat bee somewhere in there.

Ryan Nolen: I just want Snow removed from the interview.

Absent Sounds: I was gonna say, like the signs they hold up with lyrics at shows?

Snow Ellet: I need them so bad. I played a cover set a couple years ago and literally had a laptop being controlled so I could see the words. I am so horrible at memorizing lyrics.

Ryan Nolen: I can tell sometimes, when people sing our songs back to us, that they know a phrase — and then they don't know the next line. I like that though.

Snow Ellet: I relate to them. I have no idea either.

Absent Sounds: We went to the Foxing show and they'd released the album like two days before — and people knew all the words. How?

Snow Ellet: They're miming. Singing "watermelon, watermelon."

Ryan Nolen: Like my grandpa used to be really loud in church during the hymns. He didn't know the words, he was just singing to sing. If you're loud about it, people think you're holy. Same thing at a show — if you're singing the words, you look like you got there first. And you wanted the other person to feel jealous about it. Don't give them that.

Ryan Nolen: I've never been to Boise.

Snow Ellet: First time in Boise for me too.

Ryan Nolen: This is the first hour we've ever been in Boise. It kind of feels like a small Austin.

Snow Ellet: Right now it seems super quiet. I got here and was like, there's like no noise. Where's the festival?

Ryan Nolen: Time is super fleeting nowadays. I am now thirty-three years old and I don't know how that happened. I'm the oldest guy in the band.

Snow Ellet: And I'm thirty. Young and spry.

Ryan Nolen: I just can't believe we're here. And I kind of can't believe people are starting to receive the band well at this age — I imagined this all going down way earlier in my life. But I'm glad it happened. I'm certainly not stopping. I'd be a damn fool to pump the brakes. Time is super fleeting, and everyone I know is having children and their jobs are legit, and I am in mass disarray. But we're playing music and I'm in theory doing what I always wanted to do when I was young. Honoring that. Still trying to make some cool music with the help of friends who don't know how to memorize lyrics.

Snow Ellet: It's amazing what you can accomplish.

Ryan Nolen: It's really sad. It's amazing.

Snow Ellet: I completely agree — time is totally fleeting. Every year just seems to get shorter. I blink and three months have passed. I can't say it's a good or bad thing, because when times are tough, it's kind of awesome that three months passes by really quick.

Ryan Nolen: I think we do well with pressure. Self-imposed pressure. When we're on the hot seat we're way better.

Absent Sounds: Sounds like procrastinators.

Ryan Nolen: The panic monkey. Can't do anything until the panic monkey starts yelling. And then I'm like, okay, now I gotta do this.

Ryan Nolen: Better late than ever.

Absent Sounds: We're really excited for the show. Thank you guys so much.

Ryan Nolen: Thank you. Thank you so much. That was incredibly fun.

Snow Ellet: I'm glad it was chill. That's all we hope for.