SeeYouSpaceCowboy Shares New Single 'Chewing The Scenery'
“Chewing The Scenery” was produced by Matt Squire (Underoath, SUM 41, The Used).
By: Michael Major Aug. 24, 2023
Post hardcore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy have returned with their brand new single “Chewing The Scenery”, out now via Pure Noise Records. A song that ebbs and flows between darker melodies, visceral breakdowns, and heart-stopping screams, “Chewing The Scenery” marks the beginning of a new era of SeeYouSpaceCowboy – one that sees the band continue to experiment with elements from across genres and styles.
“This is one of the first songs we wrote when we locked ourselves in a Cabin in the Poconos to figure out what we wanted to do with the sound of SYSC moving forward,” shares frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa. “Somehow me saying I wanted a Waltz part in a song turned into this expansion of the chaotic post hardcore sound we had done on The Romance of Affliction but with sprinkles of new “brighter” elements we wanted to sprinkle into the new songs that we were making. This track served as a proof of concept for the beginning of playing around with whatever we wanted to and showed us that we can push without the confines of genre and style and still create something that sounded cohesive.”
She continues: “Lyrically this song reflects the melodrama and conflict of relationships but recontextualized as a theatrical play you are putting on for the world. It deals with the debate about whether love can be just bliss and happiness, or if you have to acknowledge and accept the pain and frustration that can and most likely will accompany it, as well as dealing with that realization.”
“Chewing The Scenery” was produced by Matt Squire (Underoath, SUM 41, The Used) and marks the first new music since SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s second full-length, The Romance Of Affliction (2021). A brutal musical and emotional assault on the senses, The Romance Of Affliction bristled with the sound of total collapse, of darkness closing in, of trying to escape – through drugs, through death, through whatever means necessary – from the horrors of existence. Not just metaphorically, either. Two weeks after the band finished recording it, Sgarbossa nearly died from a drug overdose. It was, she admits, a kind of physical manifestation of everything the album’s 13 songs are about.
On The Romance Of Affliction Sgarbossa poured more of herself, her emotions, her feelings, into the songs than she ever had since the band – completed, on this record, by Connie’s brother Ethan (guitar/vocals), Taylor Allen (bass/vocals) and AJ Tartol (drums) – first formed in 2016. Initially, the idea was for this record to be a response to the band’s 2019 debut, The Correlation Between Entrance And Exit Wounds, a record heavily inspired by the suicide of Sgarbossa’s then-partner Natalie Margaret Garrett, but she soon realized that wasn’t the record she needed to make.
“I didn’t want to write an album that was like ‘Hey, everything’s okay!’” she continues. “A big theme is what it means to be in love while also dealing with all these terrible things. But I got home and after two weeks I almost died of an overdose. And I felt like it was important to let people know that yeah, I’m writing this record, but that this s’s also very real. This is my life.”
That brutal, unflinching honesty isn’t just conveyed with Sgarbossa’s intensely personal lyrics, but through the intensely visceral songs that bring those raw emotions to life. Indeed, the music is a physical manifestation of the existential tug of war played out in these songs – the push and pull between existence and non-existence, the torment of loss, the rush and exhilaration and self-destructive devastation of addiction – and everything in-between. Each song is its own unpredictable, chaotic journey through darkness and pain, all linked together by the universe they’re part of.
The Romance Of Affliction, produced by Knocked Loose guitarist Isaac Hale, stands as the quintessential SeeYouSpaceCowboy record. It’s violent and vicious, harrowing but oddly comforting, bleak yet beautiful. It’s a complex and compelling mix of genres that defies categorization and which truly places the band in a world of their own. And – despite the sorrowful despair that flows through it from beginning to end – it’s also got that trademark sass that has defined the band from the start.
The Romance Of Affliction is out now via Pure Noise Records. Stay tuned for more coming soon from SeeYouSpaceCowboy.
Upcoming Tour Dates
9/5 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
9/6 – New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
9/8 – Boston, MA @ Big Night Live
9/9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
9/10 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
9/12 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
9/13 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground
9/14 – Pontiac, MI @ The Crofoot Ballroom
9/16 – Milwaukee, WI @ JJ’s Bar & Grill (SeeYouSpaceCowboy Headline Show)
9/17 – Cleveland, OH @ The Roxy
9/18 – Columbus, OH @ The KING Of CLUBS
9/20 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi Annex
9/21 – Louisville, KY @ Louder Than Life Festival
9/22 – St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag
9/23 – Atlanta, GA @ Heaven at The Masquerade
9/25 – West Palm Beach, FL @ Revolution Live
9/26 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
9/28 – Austin, TX @ Empire Garage LLC
9/29 – Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory
10/1 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
10/2 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
10/3 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center
10/5 – Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock Festival
10/6 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
10/8 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
10/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
10/11 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
10/12 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory
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