American Standard’s new EP Dopamine Dealer was recently released and we asked vocalist Brandon Kellum to tell us about each track. Check out his commentary on the EP below!
Dopamine Dealer
Before the pandemic, we lost our drummer, Mitch Hosier, who played on the prior album, Anti-Melody. I should clarify, dude was busy as hell. Just recently got married, had a kid, and was doing multiple bands (he’s a drummer… no surprises there). So that whole period of down time when venues were closed was spent getting Chris Daley up to speed behind the kit. We did a few charity live streams supporting local businesses in the community, but outside of that we hadn’t even played a show with the new line up yet. We decided to test the waters and start riffing for what became ‘The Pendulum, The Podium’ and everything felt good.
Chris wasn’t missing a beat, Sad Ghost Studio was easy to work with, and it felt like it was time to work on something more substantial. We’re still fairly old school though, so everything up to that point always started in a practice space and was never truly ready to record until we had played it live a few times. I think vibing off the crowds energy always helped us understand where we could build off the dynamics. So instead of biting off a full length or even a traditional EP, we had this idea of releasing a slow and steady drip of singles that would eventually be packaged into one.
To tie them together thematically, we wanted each to be about refocusing on what really matters. So much time is wasted chasing material things and artificial social status. So the concept, if you could call it that, is choosing something with a little more substance over that automatic hit of dopamine that’s often right in front of you as a distraction.
The Dealer
Original Name: The Dealer of Fate
The Dealer was the first song written, recorded, and released from Dopamine Dealer. To me, it has a very metallic feel to it. It’s modern and punchy, but still rough around the edges like the bands we grew up on. Deadguy, Spitfire, Coalese, and old Cave In all come to mind. I love when bands reference other artists, especially when the artist is someone people may only vaguely know, or not completely understand why it sounds familiar. It becomes kind of a treasure hunt to discover.
So lyrically, The Dealer plays off ‘Whatever Will Be, Will Be’ released by Doris Day in 1956. I guess we would have been more like those early 2000s metalcore bands if we would have used a sound clip, but I really liked the idea of putting our own touch on it. That’s why we brought in Chelsey Louise from the Arizona indie rock band Fairy Bones to sing the intro. She nailed it. The twist, is rather than leave everything up to fate as in the original songs message, this song is about taking control of your fate despite the obstacles, anxiety, and self doubt that may get in your way.
The Tourist
Original Name: Tourists of the Grave
The Tourist is the second track on the EP but the last to be finished. We took a unique approach with this one by having Corey and I write two separate sets of lyrics independent of each other. We brainstormed concepts, but the first time we had heard each others takes was actually in the studio. Corey brought in imagery of a king looking back at his life spent gathering possessions and building a kingdom as his legacy only to realize “love lives on” in the way you impact others.
I love the contrast between his verses, the pre/choruses I do, and then topping it off with a guest feature from Cody Milford of The God Samaritan. We’ve always been a band that tries to bridge audiences, so having done shows with Cody before, we knew he brings an energy that can win over any crowd. I had planned on doing that bridge, but stoked we pitched it over to him to knock it out of the park. It really adds to all the dynamics, while also being maybe one of the most structured songs we’ve released.
The Vagrant
Original Name: The Vagrant Led Astray
The last song is the Vagrant. When Corey brought the opening riff to practice, my first thought was it’s a lot more upbeat than some of our other stuff. Almost in the way Turnstile has put their spin on hardcore. It also gave me a lot of old 90s hardcore vibes similar to Refused or Snapcase. That said, I’ve always wanted to do a song like it but didn’t know how it would play out. For this one, I brought the lyrics closer to home and wrote as a message to the fame chasers.
The insincere and the the uninspired. There are goobers in your local music scene that are paying for streams/views, paying for positive reviews/reaction videos, paying to play national shows, and then trying to flex on social media like they’re a rock star. Somewhere artists are loosing their way. They’ve got the motivation but lack the inspiration. The Vagrant is about bringing sincerity back to music.