Ever since he can keep in mind, Dylan Slocum has been obsessive about dying. Not essentially with dying – though that’s a part of it – however simply dying as an idea and a priority. It’s one thing that’s all the time knowledgeable the lyrics he writes for Spanish Love Songs: a band that, usually, has served as a automobile for addressing his existential anxiousness, each on a private stage and a extra common one. The songs on their new album No Pleasure are, as its title sort of suggests, very a lot in the identical vein.

However when Dylan first started speaking to his band – authentic members Kyle McAulay (lead guitar) and Ruben Duarte (drums), who began Spanish Love Songs with Dylan again in 2013, and Trevor Dietrich (bass) and Meredith Van Woert (keyboards), each of whom joined in 2017 – he pitched it as one thing barely completely different. It was, he informed his bandmates and spouse (he and Meredith tied the knot in October 2020), an album of affection songs. They thought he was joking.

“I are inclined to need to write albums with an enormous thought behind them,” he explains over Zoom, carrying – surprisingly – a Slipknot T-shirt. “Not thematically, however simply as a method to wrap my head across the work. And the pitch for this album was that I’m simply going to jot down a bunch of affection songs. And that’s actually what this album is – it’s a bunch of affection songs to folks.”

Don’t be fooled, nonetheless. These are Spanish Love Songs-love songs. Which implies most of them have a considerably morbid undercurrent.

“It’s love songs how we do love songs,” Dylan continues. “Which is like, ‘Man, I really like you a lot and I’m fearful of the day you’re going to die,’ vs., like, ‘Oh, it’s Friday and I’m in love with you.’ I really like The Treatment, however I need the darkish facet of The Treatment, you recognize?”

Dylan’s lifelong concern of mortality has perpetually been a motivating issue for his songwriting. And but he hasn’t actually managed to quell any of the dread that comes with it. It actually solely helps him come to phrases with it quickly.

“It simply helps me get the thought off my thoughts,” he explains. “I don’t know what it got here from or why it exists, but it surely comes by way of within the songs and I simply deal with it in that second and say what wants be stated after which transfer on – till the subsequent time it comes up and feels too overwhelming.

“I discuss to folks on a regular basis who’re like, ‘I’m comfy dying,’ or, ‘I’m advantageous with dying,’ and I can’t wrap my head round ever being comfy with it. It occurs, clearly. However I’ve an infinite quantity of issues that I need to do, and I’ve a finite period of time to do them, and that’s very miserable to consider in these phrases. However it’s additionally sort of liberating, since you would possibly as effectively simply do the belongings you love. It’s looking for the enjoyment in what you’re doing. It’s my try at positivity, I assume.”