The Menzingers release their seventh studio album ‘Some Of It Was True’ via Epitaph Records. Four years since the release of 2019’s ‘Hello Exile,‘ the band collaborated with Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, the War on Drugs, Waxahatchee) on this new music. Recorded at Texas’s legendary Sonic Ranch Studio, Cook helped accomplish the daunting task of capturing their distinctive live energy within the confines of a studio, and what results is their most immediate-sounding and energetic record to date.
The Philly foursome also treated fans to the offbeat, coming-of-age music video for ‘Try.‘ Directed by Whitey McConnaughy, you might recognize some familiar faces from the videos for ‘I Don’t Wanna Be an Asshole Anymore‘ and ‘America (You’re Freaking Me Out).‘
With an endearing account of how the song came together, vocalist/guitarist Tom May explains: “We wrote this song the morning after Joe’s birthday. There was something about being together with old friends that had us fired up to write a straightforward punk song that barely breathes. Towards the end of jamming one of us went to the wrong chord and it actually worked. We went a little out there with the outro and that happy accident made it on the record. It’s already become one of our favorite songs to play together.”
“The Menzingers are as real as it gets,” Brad Cook says on his time in the studio with the band. “I had an absolute blast working with these guys and was moved to tears many times. They are truly dedicated to artistic growth, and to each other, in ways I found both refreshing and beautiful. I am now a lifer.”
Speaking on the impact that Cook had on the band, Tom May says: “Brad massively changed the way we were approaching the record. We’d talk about music and develop a vocabulary about how to work together, and that made us embrace chasing the feeling instead worrying about locking in things immediately.”
Lyrically, ‘Some Of It Was True‘ is a showcase for how the band’s songwriting has expanded beyond their own personal experiences, drawing from what’s happening around them and the lives of those who keep this world’s lifeforce pumping. Acknowledging that they’re in a very different place than when they formed in 2008, this album embraces change and it’s definitely for the better. “This record just feels different for us,” Greg Barnett explains. “It’s a really important one in our catalog, and a pivotal moment in our history. We have the liberty of our fans growing with us now, and after writing these lyrical songs about where we are in life, we decided to take other peoples’ stories and make something bigger out of it.”