For New Jersey’s The Front Bottoms, working on new music has always been therapeutic, but on their forthcoming new album You Are Who You Hang Out With, having complete and utter fun took top priority for the duo of Brian Sella and Mat Uychich. It’s this carefree and laid-back mindset that colored the sessions for You Are Who You Hang Out With, set for release on August 4th via Fueled by Ramen. Recorded in multi-week spurts with producer Mike Sapone, both in The Front Bottoms’ New Jersey studio and Ghost Hit Recording in Massachusetts, You Are Who You Hang Out With is a seasoned musical outfit operating at peak performance. Armed with the duo’s signature anthemic melodies, take-no-prisoners lyrics and tight musical interplay, every spin of the album is a chance to peek behind the curtain at two friends having one hell of a time doing what they do best. “Oh yeah, it had to be fun for us,” says Uychich of the freewheeling, oft-emotional sessions that resulted in You Are You Who Hang Out With. “Also, we said numerous times that we needed to make it sound like The Front Bottoms.” To hear Sella tell it, things had to feel comfortable for he and Uychich. Because, sure, they could get self-serious about their craft. But The Front Bottoms have never been that band. “So we had to keep it natural,” Sella says of the process that resulted in a stunning 10-track album full of explosive hooks and even harder-hitting melodies “Don’t force anything and just let the songs develop the way they develop. That’s just the way it’s meant to be.”
