With a penchant for rousing pop-punk with a distinctly heart-wrenching emo streak, Spanish Love Songs have been changing folks to their often-bleak realist trigger for the reason that launch of 2018 album, ‘Schmaltz’.

Documenting the distress, despair, and sheer hopelessness that usually cloud the minds of many, the LA five-piece have spent the higher half of a decade fostering a neighborhood of followers unafraid to really feel, pushed by the emotionally bruising songwriting of frontman Dylan Slocum.

With 2020’s ‘Courageous Faces Everybody’ launched simply weeks earlier than a world pandemic took maintain of the planet, the band’s intensely private songs grew to become a beacon of hope for a lot of, serving as a reminder that regardless of how unhealthy issues get – you’re by no means alone. Shamelessly skirting round life’s darkest edges, whether or not he’s delving into the inside workings of his personal mind or making an attempt to make sense of the chaos that surrounds him, Dylan’s lyrics have develop into outlined by their humanity, capturing the on a regular basis moments and feelings that unite us all.

A songwriter who typically prefers to let folks draw their very own interpretations from his phrases, as the discharge of Spanish Love Songs’ newest album ‘No Pleasure’ looms, Dylan talks Rock Sound by means of ten of his favorite references throughout the band’s lyrics.

“Listening to deathbed confessionals // Attempt to discover somebody extra reliable”, ‘Lifers’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“This got here from a really particular reminiscence I’ve of being within the van in Germany on the finish of 2019. It was fairly early, and we have been driving from Berlin to Cologne to play what nonetheless is perhaps the most important present of our profession with Scorching Water Music.

Now we have lots of associates in Berlin, so I didn’t sleep the evening earlier than. For some self-hating cause, I placed on Mount Eerie’s album ‘A Crow Checked out Me’, which is in regards to the singer’s spouse dying. I used to be brazenly weeping within the backseat of the van, and at one level, Meredith [Van Woert, keys] appeared over and requested what was unsuitable. I confirmed her the album on my telephone, and she or he was like, ‘Why are you doing this to your self?’ I’ve solely listened to that album possibly 3 times in whole, and it’s crushingly stunning, nevertheless it’s the worst factor you are able to do to your self once you haven’t slept the evening earlier than and also you’re on the sting of sanity anyway.”

“The vampires come at 4 within the morning // Out for blood with their highlight on me”, ‘Pendulum’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“That is just about a direct quote from my grandma. She had COVID and was within the hospital for about 5 months earlier than she died. She mentioned that the vampires would come each morning to take her blood, as a result of it was principally the midnight. That picture is terrifying to think about, and it was one of many final full conversations we had. It’s heart-breaking to consider, particularly throughout COVID when no one may very well be within the hospital together with her. She was being playful about it although, and she or he was that kind of particular person.

That entire music is about three totally different cases of individuals dying in bizarre methods, by themselves. I already obsessed about loss of life earlier than folks have been dying at an alarming fee round me, so now it’s ramped up.”

“There’s one other physique within the McDonald’s car parking zone // The cops stand round like there’s nothing to do // You begin to fear that’s what you’ll appear like when it catches up”, ‘Haunted’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“One thing you’ll discover in our songs is that I have a tendency to seek out these experiences that appear bizarre, or set in opposition to one thing mundane, and obsess over them. I used to be driving by means of Nashville, fairly quickly after I’d moved there, and drove by McDonald’s. There have been some cops and EMTs huddled round a lifeless physique, and I don’t know what struck me, however I ended up pulling off the highway on my drive house and writing that complete second verse into my notes app. It was a bizarre factor to be impressed by, I assume, however I couldn’t cease fascinated about that one who was lifeless within the McDonald’s car parking zone. What led them to that second? It’s terrifying to assume that it may have been anyone.”

“I noticed an angel on a hill constructed on prime of a landfill // Overlooking the mess I’d made”, ‘Clear-Up Crew’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“We spent the primary chunk of the pandemic dwelling in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as a result of we had given up our place in LA to go on tour for all of 2020. Instantly we didn’t have a tour anymore, so we ended up again in Cedar Rapids, which is the place Meredith is from. Within the metropolis there, they took one in every of their previous landfills and constructed a hill excessive of it. They lined it up, and so they known as it Mount Trashmore. It’s this weirdly stunning and horrifying factor.

We might journey our bikes across the empty metropolis in the course of the pandemic, and I’d see folks on prime of Mount Trashmore simply dwelling their lives. It’s one of many extra stunning components of Cedar Rapids, though it doesn’t sound prefer it. They took one thing that ought to have been really disgusting, and a minimum of made it habitable. They even put a mountain bike path on it.”

“I’ll be tremendous // Silent explosions in my thoughts // Come take me down at any time // Simply making an attempt to make it to the tip of the world // Keep alive out of spite”, ‘Marvel’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“There are some things occurring right here, however I feel crucial one to me is that I’m positively afraid of getting a mind aneurysm – which is the ‘silent explosions’ factor. I lastly managed to work that anxiousness right into a music, so I used to be fairly happy with myself.

The ‘keep alive out of spite’ line began as a joke to a pal in the course of the pandemic. They have been going by means of a tough time, and it was this concept of, ‘Screw the haters, keep alive. Who cares in regards to the world?’ I ended up scripting this music for them, and it match rather well with the file as an entire after we have been placing it collectively.

‘Keep alive out of spite’ really grew to become a rallying level for the album itself. We’ve had sufficient and we’re right here on this world that feels prefer it’s ending, however what are we going to do? I at all times joke and say, ‘What a privilege to be round to witness the tip of the world’. You’ve acquired to attempt to take a look at it positively generally.”

“Might 5^th, awakened in an ambulance // Holding my brother’s hand asking him what went unsuitable // Throwing matches, they requested, ‘Who’s president?’ // I say, “It don’t make sense, is there a conflict occurring?”, ‘I’m Gonna Miss All the things’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“This complete first verse is a couple of traumatic head harm I suffered on Might 5^th, 2010. I used to be in faculty, enjoying basketball on campus. I nailed this candy shot, and I used to be enjoying probably the greatest video games I’d ever performed in a pickup sport. Then I awakened in an ambulance. Anyone had tripped behind me, and I fell over them. I hit my head on the concrete, knocked myself out immediately, after which had a seizure.

After waking within the ambulance, I went below once more, and I awakened within the hospital. They did the entire head trauma factor the place they requested, ‘What’s your identify? The place are you? What’s the date?’ I couldn’t keep in mind that it was Might 5^th. They requested who the president was, I couldn’t keep in mind, and so they have been like, ‘It’s Barack Obama’.

It was a bizarre time that left me in a mountain of medical debt. I feel that harm essentially shifted who I’m as an individual, however I’ve no method of realizing for positive as a result of I don’t keep in mind a lot round that point. I feel I may need been totally different earlier than it, and that truly structured lots of this album.”

“Spent our Easter on the Mall of America // Nonetheless undecided why we strive // Needed to journey out all my mania earlier than I left // The coaster automobile was climbing // I hung my head over the sting // If the autumn would go down simple // I can image sinking in”, ‘Mutable’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“Meredith and I spent Easter of 2019 on the Mall of America, ready for our flight out of Minneapolis to go to Europe for tour. All the things was closed apart from the theme rides, which I believed was bizarre. We rode a few of them, and I felt like absolute crap. I used to be actually on the curler coasters feeling like I used to be dying or there was one thing severely unsuitable with me. We discovered in a while that tour that I had mono.

That day although, I keep in mind writing down ‘Easter on the Mall of America’ as a music title, which sat in my telephone for 3 years. Once we have been scripting this album, that verse got here up, and I realised that I may match it right into a music. It’s at all times enjoyable when you will have one thing bizarre and may discover a strategy to shoehorn it into one thing the place it is smart.”

“I keep in mind as a child // Cellular classroom, holding arms // Younger Christians with good intentions calling for a stranger’s head // I discovered all of it only a bit an excessive amount of”, ‘Re-Rising Indicators of the Apocalypse’ – ‘No Pleasure’ (2023)

“It is a reference that solely my little brother would ever perceive. We grew up going to church on and off, and that is from a time in our life the place we have been going to church a bit extra. We ended up at youth group the week after 9/11 occurred, and there have been a tonne of individuals saying that they wished to kill a bunch of different folks. I feel I used to be 13 on the time, and my brother was 10. We have been taking a look at one another like, ‘That is fucked up, proper?’

As you develop up, you realise that it’s simply how these children have been raised, to concern and to hate different folks. I don’t have a tonne of recollections of church, and that is in all probability my strongest one. There was one thing deeply bizarre and terrible about folks saying, ‘We’re gonna get the fellows who did this. We’re gonna kill all of them’. It was an odd time in world historical past.”

“Attempting to take these bastards for 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 // Regardless of your mother’s protesting”, ‘Seaside Entrance Property’ – ‘Courageous Faces Everybody’ (2020)

“I get requested about this line rather a lot, and it’s about how me and each pal I’ve in America are scared that we’re by no means going to get out from below our scholar mortgage debt, however we’re additionally making an attempt to be powerful about it. They’re going to maintain charging me curiosity and by the point I die, I’m going to owe them 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 {dollars}. Regardless of that although, there’s a deep-seated concern for an entire technology of being saddled with an unthinkable debt.

I need to shout out the debt collective although. It’s a debtor’s union right here within the States that’s coming collectively to attempt to combat some of these items. Everybody ought to test them out in the event that they get an opportunity.”

“I noticed an indication in Hanover that mentioned, ‘the long run is in movement’”, ‘Courageous Faces Everybody’ – ‘Courageous Faces Everybody’ (2020)

“That is the primary factor I get requested about, nevertheless it actually isn’t that thrilling! I noticed an precise register Hanover for Continental, which I feel is a automobile firm, and their slogan is, ‘The longer term is in movement’. It’s simply a type of bizarre issues that I wrote down once I noticed it.

I’ve an awesome reminiscence of mentioning two indicators in Germany, one was that, and the opposite was an indication that mentioned ‘Dildo King’ in Berlin. I’ve images of each of these issues on my telephone, however I haven’t fairly managed to work that one right into a music but…”

Spanish Love Songs’ ‘No Pleasure’ is out now by way of Pure Noise Information.