Take a trip up North.
Something Corporate show amazing growth, same passion.

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When their first record, Leaving Through the Window, was released, Something Corporate ended up being branded punk, emo or some combination of the two.   The fact is that while elements of those two genres may end up flowing through SoCo’s work, they’re really just a rock band with those ubiquitous pop sensibilities.

Whatever the case, Leaving put the band on the musical landscape and it, in combination with their passionate live shows, brought the band a dedicated and equally passionate following.  Fans fell in love with their heart-on-their-sleeve lyrics and singer Andrew McMahon’s piano antics, while also respecting the band for not being a carbon copy of what had come before.  SoCo had cultivated their own sound and direction, and Leaving offered a wonderful first helping for listeners to soak up.

As the title and cover indicate, North takes us on a trip to a very different place.  Sure, those elements that brought you in the first time – the musical integrity and style – are still there, but this record has an entirely different feel.  “I look at this as our winter album,” guitarist Josh Partington explained to us recently. “Leaving is very much a summer album, and we didn’t want to make the same record.”

North is much darker, in mood and style, but without losing the direct connection to your heart that the band is known for.  From the first single, “Space,” it’s obvious that SoCo have grown both as musicians as lyricists, but even more so as people.  It’s a vibe that resonates throughout the record.

In speaking with Partington, there is that one feeling that encompasses the entire conversation: Something Corporate isn’t in this for fame or fortune.  They’re doing this for the love of music and because they get as much from the fans as they give.  As a group and as five individuals, they appreciate everything they have and where they are, with North being a reflection of that appreciation, love, passion and growth.

Here’s what Josh had to say:

VOX: How did the fires in Southern California affect you guys?
Josh Partington: Just, you know, our monitor engineer lives in San Diego, and the fires were about one and a half miles from his apartment, so he had to pack everything he could up and get out for a while.  Some of Bill’s family lives close to Crestline, so that had us praying and really worried.  Other than that, not too much.  We had to reschedule our San Diego show, which we felt horrible about, but we just felt that it wasn’t the time to think about playing a show in San Diego.  

It’s not like us to cancel shows, but this is an extreme circumstance – we’ve only ever cancelled one other American show, and that was in an insane storm in Washington D.C. last February…we did also cancel half of a European tour because of the war, but I think that was an obvious one.  Who would want to come see an American band in Europe right after the war started?  There were so many reasons to cancel those shows.  What I mean is that it’s not like us to cancel or even reschedule shows, but we wanted our fans down there to focus on what was important and not rip them off if they couldn’t make it or anything like that.

VOX: I think that’s understandable.  North has been out for a bit now.  How do you feel this record is different from the last one?
Josh: Um, it’s a lot darker as a whole, which I think a lot of people are surprised about.  I’ve been gauging the reactions, and some people love it, and some feel like it’s too dark.  I listen to this record with a lot of pride, and I think it really is a representation of where we are musically as a band.   With Leaving [Through the Window], it’s a CD about a band that really hadn’t…found our niche.  Not that we’re easily categorized now, but I think we’ve definitely found our voice, at least for now.  All of our visions were very parallel coming into this, and I’m very stoked by the results.  I think this record still sounds like our band, but it’s very different.  Andrew and I, we had discussions about where we wanted to take things in the writing process, and it led here.

VOX: Do you think it’s an emotionally sadder record?
Josh: I think it’s moody, but not sad necessarily.  I look at this as our winter album – Leaving is very much a summer album, and we didn’t want to make the same record.  We made a conscious decision, and Andrew and I wanted to write a little bit darker.  It’s like, we said, “Let’s show our fans another side of this band.”
VOX: Is that where the title came from?  The word North has some obvious elements and connotations to it…winter, like your said, for one.
Josh: It’s more like, as a band, we like to seriously see how the record makes us feel, as a whole experience.  When we go into a room to name an album, we talk about it, the songs, the process, and for this one, recording it in Seattle, seven or eight hundred miles away from home, there is a natural, logical side to the title, but it came out of a brainstorming session.  We wanted something that showed how we had matured, and that this was an obvious, thought-out step, instead of just someone or a band just growing up.  I think it defines the whole experience for us and when I think about it all as a whole, I am very proud of this record.

VOX: You guys have enjoyed some major success, especially with some very hardcore fans, without the benefit of much in the way of radio support.  How do you feel that you’ve been able to connect with so many fans in such a deep way?
Josh: You know, I think it’s just come out of us being very honest with our fans and ourselves.  None of us think of us as rock stars or have that attitude.  Up until very recently I answered every single e-mail personally.   Most bands reach a certain level and just don’t do it, for whatever reason, and we want to maintain that contact and stay grounded.

For the members of this band, we also very much appreciate all of those people who have helped us out or supported us along the way.  We’ll never forget them.  I know we’ve never had much of an MTV base or radio support, so we’ve had to build our base of fans by having as good of a live show as we possible can and try to make each show a memorable experience.

You know, every night, before we play, we have a band prayer, to remind ourselves how lucky we are and how much we appreciate all that we’ve achieved.   So many bands come and go, and we know we’re so lucky to be able to even make another record.

VOX: You’ve basically grown up in this business – is there anything you wish you could back and change?
Josh: Obviously, you can look back on certain business decisions and think that you wish you had made a slightly different decision or whatever, but I like to think about that scene from The Big Lebowski, where John Goodman, goes, “Nothing is fucked up here man.” [Laughs] That’s how I look at our situation.  We just have to keep doing what we love doing, keep touring and bringing it to new people.  I think we’ve yet to really even discover what our potential is.

VOX: Let’s talk about the music a bit – “Space” is the first single, which you wrote.  Can you tell me about the song?
Josh: It’s just…about kinda the frustrations you feel and deal with in a relationship, or with family, being close with people, but still, everyone’s different and friction happens and so on.  I think the chorus kinda says it all – the frustration comes out.

VOX: How was production different from the last record?
Josh: It wasn’t like, let’s make a White Stripes record and do everything completely different than anything we’ve done before.  It really sprang from an idea that Andrew and I had, that was really had and we had to sort of sell it to the rest of the guys…it was tough.  It wasn’t an easy sell.  We said, basically, that we have to change and evolve some, you know, every record you make could be your last, and so on, so we wanted to put everything we had into this record.

When you tour for like, ten months out of the year, and then come home, it is really hard to focus on the band again.  You’re gone so long, and then you’re home and can take it easy, that when it comes time, it’s hard to get back to being focused on the music.  Then we’re saying lets leave LA, pack it up and go away to Seattle and make another record, it’s not going to go over as well as you would like, understandably.

VOX: You do a fair share of the writing on this record.  How does the process work for you?  Is guitar first or lyrics?
Josh: It really varies.  My favorite from this record that I wrote is “Only Ashes.”  I wrote the music to the song to be very dark.  I remember when I wrote it, like for a time it wasn’t coming out exactly as I wanted, then when were touring in England, we were in Birmingham, and I was sitting outside of the cemetery – and I had played the song many times in sound check and just wasn’t completely happy with it – and I sat there and just wrote it.  It was like the environment and the setting were perfect for it to come out the way I wanted it to.   Luckily I’m getting better at knowing what it takes to make the setting right for me to get out what I want.  But, you know, it all depends on the song.  For “I Won’t Make You,” I had written that as a poem first.  It really had the feel of a letter or a natural poem, and then it evolved into a song.

VOX: One of the big topics right now is downloading.  How do you come down on the issue?
Josh: It’s kinda tough – does it hurt us?  Yes, it does, it hurt our record sales, but at the same time, we have a lot to be thankful for, so it could have been far worse.  Then I look at it like this: one of our songs, “Konstantine,” is a big fan favorite, and it’s a song we play almost every night, but it’s not on any of our records.  The only way to get it is to download it.  We never released it, we know kids want it, and that’s how they’re going to get it.   I don’t know, maybe we would have gone gold if not for the Internet, but then I look at the crowds we’re playing to, and they’re only getting bigger.  I know some of that is because of the Internet, too, no doubt about it.  That’s life, though.  You have to take the good with the bad.

The next couple of years will be very interesting.  Eventually they’ll be doing specials on TV about his time in music, that’s for sure.   The invention of the I-Pod and i-music had made huge changes, too.  Part of the problem is that so many people in the record industry have been afraid of the Internet instead of embracing it, and that’s going to have to change too.