Kalistan

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Smoke Releases their First LP, "The Luxon Swell" on ARC



The Luxon Swell is released on ARC
Smoke produces a more melodic, radio friendly Noise in Sulari
Sulari, Duchy of Suldanor
July 7, 5564

The Sulari Noise Alternative band Smoke has released the new full length LP The Luxon Swell on ARC. The LP's release happened almost 2 years to the date from their EP Nihilism. "ARC decided that the development deal paid off," said singer George Cacophonous. "They called us back to the studio last November and we've been recording and mixing and writing ever since."

The album's title refers to a large standing wave pattern that creates great surfing during the summer months in southern Ananto. "We did a lot of writing and a lot of surfing in Luxon last summer, and that's pretty much where a lot of these songs came about," said Black Michaelson, the band's bassist and co-song writer. "Sometimes, you know when you start to get that feeling, and you are seeing a lot of the same people you saw when you were using, and they think you have all this money and they start trying to get you to go back to that life, you just gotta kinda go where nobody really knows you. Turns out that was Luxon for us. We decided to dedicate this album to that place: It kept us safe last summer, you know?"

Cacophonous said "Surfing really kind of clears the mind. There is something so healing and peaceful about the waves: You are out there, past the reef on this piece of wood, and the whole ocean is pushing in on you, and you kind of feel the massive force, swelling up below you. On the board you can choose to paddle out, you can try to stay with that swell and when it kind of crests and loops around, you can really push your speed and blast out of the curl, or you can stay in there forever, you can wash out, you can wipe out, you can die on the reef... it's all very real, very peaceful. And you start to think that everything, and I mean, everything is a choice. Do I die today, or do I just let the swell wash over me and wait for the next one?"

The calmer attitude of the band has led the band more away from the raw sound of their EP to a more alternative radio friendly, and interestingly, punk adjacent sound in their 14-track LP. "We have a lot of songs about the various stages of dealing with a broken life, and trying to put it back together," said Michaelson. "Both George and I came from really kind of messed up childhoods. My parents always fought because both my parents were drunks and my home life wasn't really that peaceful. We were working through a lot of that last summer when we were writing this record."

The sound isn't nearly as noisy as their EP either. "No, I thought Noise is really a good way to get a lot of rage out," said Cacophonous. "There's still a lot of really loud guitars on this record, but there is also some really kind of melodic stuff here too. There's a lot of anger, but there is also a lot of forgiveness, and a lot of asking for forgiveness. We really f--ked a lot of people over when we were using all the time. We met a lot of great people, many of whom are gone now. You can hear their ghosts on the record... We sang a lot of songs for and about them."

There were several very personal songs on the record as well. One was about a boy who had terrifying dreams about a beautiful woman who he saw jumping off a bridge. It is later revealed that she was his mother, and his adopted parents had told him his entire life that she was really his aunt. "No, that song was not a true story," said Cacophonous. "Like when I demoed it, [Smoke's drummer] Heavy Dee was all like 'Man, that's rough, man, I had no idea you saw your mom kill herself! I'm sorry, bro,' and I was like 'The f--k you talking about? My mom lives in Dana. You were over there for supper last month!' But I write songs about things I went through as often as I write songs about some idea I had when watching a movie. And if my own drummer don't know which is which, I am doing my job."

There are also a lot of songs on the record that talk about getting clean and trying to stay clean. "Kalistan is a drug user's paradise," said Michaelson. "If I want something, I just have to walk down the street and slap a few rubles on the counter in the ODEN shop and voila. There's no trying to score, there's no need to steal or anything for money to buy a fix... none of that. It's all right there. So a lot of times, people who are kinda in the depths of it, you know they kind of imagine a place where they can go and the place itself is kinda magical and it just heals them. Its a common fantasy: like you can get clean without doing the work. There's lots of songs like that on the record too, that talk about that. Some fantasy land where you just can go and live out the rest of your life happy. Luxon is kinda like that, but just like that swell, its still real here too, and there's a hundred ways to die."

"I think this record is us kind of putting the work in. We are following through on what we promised our manager," said Cacophonous. "We are still straight, no drugs. And they still opened the door for us, welcomed us back, and let us work. It's like that thing: Rewire your brain so you get that dopamine response from things that are good for you instead of all the stuff you were doing that hurt you. Rinse, repeat. ARC has been great to work with, they gave us our wonderful producer, Miki Wold, back and we made a great record. It gets easier every day."

Check out all of The Luxon Swell here, and check out Smoke's first video from the Album, the punk adjacent track "Just another Overdose" right here.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DjpNgrocKo]