St. Clair Has A Surprise...
An exciting announcement from the band St. Clair + an inside look at their creative process!
St. Clair is a band that surpassed all my expectations. If I’m being completely honest, when I first heard that I was assigned to this project, I was excited, but not totally familiar with their music. In a sense, I wrote them off because of this—at least, for a time. This all changed when I listened to their EP.
Released last December, this 6-track, demo-heavy piece has a certain je ne sais quoi that kept me hooked—particularly to the third track, “THE SOUND”, which I had to have streamed at least ten times in one sitting. Truly, these guys have something special going on.
With this newfound affinity fresh in my mind, I was able to better contextualize my assignment and start to get properly excited—and just in time, too! For it has just been revealed as a Bobcat Press Exclusive that their first album, “In Times Like These There Is No Surrender”, will officially be released on August 1st, 2025!
In preparation for this release, I sat down with St. Clair to discuss the ins and outs of the album’s creation, the band’s musical and personal influences in this project, and any expectations for their upcoming album release show, scheduled for August 8th at Off Broadway with Martyridge, Silver Material, and Interpersonal.
Sitting down at a cafe that shall go unpromoted this time around due to recent controversy (FUCK LA FINCA COFFEE ROASTERS), I was able to get an inside look “under the hood” of St. Clair; and I can’t wait to share it with you all today! Without further ado, let’s launch into the meat of the article: the interview.
[Originally recorded 5/26/2025]
1. You have this new project coming out; what do you want people to know about it before it comes out? Are there any inspirations, collaborations, or anything we would want to know or that you want us to know?
Self-Taught & Killing It
Brendon: We always talk about how we all have kinda different tastes, but we overlap in some places.
Josiah: Yeah, we all kinda come from a different background, and we don't do things traditionally. None of us are really guitarists—or a drummer.
Josiah: Our bassist is a guitarist, our drummer is a keyboard player, our vocalist is like—I mean, you’ve done a lot of different things over time.
Ian: Yeah, yeah
Josiah: You’ve played drums, right?
Ian: Yeah.
Josiah: So, it's like, I’ve never gotten any drum training, but I’m the drummer.
Ian: Kinda thrown together.
Josiah: Yeah, but it's part of that mix and everybody having different tastes that’s led us to really experiment with sounds rather than being like “I want to be in this genre” and creating that kind of sound. It’s more like “What can we all bring to the table, and how does that fit with eachother?”
Ian: We never seem to fit with a genre, also.
JP: Yeah, we’ve heard so many different things. People compare us to so many things—and it’s always different every time.
Ian: Yeah! I’m always like “What? I’ve never heard about that, but I guess I can see it.”
JP: Yeah, people will listen to us and then say, “Oh, you sound like…” and then name, like, a million bands. And none of them are the same, nobody says the same band
Josiah: I don't know why it's like that
Brendon: I think it's because our songs are so dynamic, too.
JP: You get like every genre.
Josiah: Yeah, I think this album especially encapsulates a lot of different sounds within it—a lot of different feelings.
Ian: It’s kinda like a journey. It takes you on a little journey—each song, in a way, song to song.
The “Baby Band”
JP: We’re like a baby band.
Ian: Yeah, we feel like a baby band.
Brendon: A lot of room to grow.
JP: For sure, for sure.
Josiah: And I think that, in a weird way, it’s good to have this album because we just nipped this in the bud and can be like “This music has been made, it's been recorded!” and we can just really let ourselves move on. It’s like closure, in a way.
The Past & Future — Discussing How Aspects of Past Works Translate to Their Upcoming Album
Josiah: If you like anything from this album, then there's definitely really great stuff we’re gonna make in the future, too.
Brendon: Yeah, because we push each other. I play way differently than I did before, even within the first couple of months of playing together.
Josiah: I love it! You know, especially drumming, I get to do stuff I've never done before, and it’s absolutely incredible.
Ian: You play the drums like a keyboard player
JP: Yeah, it’s really weird. We got “proggy” guy, and then the dude making blast beats in the corner, shoegaze guy over here, and I got that classic grunge bass-playing. Nothing’s really like—what are we doing, guys?
Amaia: I like it a lot, though! I gave your EP a fresh listen last night, and it was amazing.
JP: That’s old school.
Ian: Those songs have changed so much.
Josiah: Yeah, they have
Brendon: Yeah, if you liked that…
JP: If you liked the EP, this is like a whole other beast, for real.
Ian: We kinda used like four songs off the EP and redid them completely, but then it’s also plus like six more songs.
JP: Those are for sure demos in a way. It’s a demo EP.
Brendon: They were really cool at the time.
JP: At the time, they were good.
Josiah: We concentrated a lot more. I don’t know, something you may have noticed is that some of those songs were just like…we played things out for a really long time. And in this case, we cut out a lot of noise nonsense and were like “This is what’s essential. This is what we need to be heard to understand what it’s supposed to be,” rather than like 8 minutes of us going like *imitates guitar music*.
*ALL LAUGHING*
Brendon: It feels good, though.
Josiah: It does.
Ian: It feels more like a project now.
Amaia: I'm really excited to hear it!
Brendon: We went with a different person this time, recording it. Shoutout to JCH!
Josiah: Yeah, shoutout to JCH. It’s definitely very jarring how different the sound is—just like the clarity in the room and the headspace—everything about it feels a lot different. It's gonna be really nice.
Ian: I’m really content with pre-mixes, which is something that's not even finished.
Amaia: That's how you know it's gonna be good.
Brendon: Yeah, it definitely felt better.
2. Is there anything else that has been impactful in the creation of this album?
Day-to-Day Life
JP: Mainly, I feel like it's how hard we work aside from this. I feel like a lot of our music, just on a day-to-day, coming in and starting to play—
Ian: Do you mean what we do outside of music?
JP: Yeah, outside of that, everything else we do comes in.
Ian: We all work a lot—like a LOT.
JP: 60-plus hours a week in rough conditions.
Ian: We also, like, get right off work, go to band practice; get right off work—oh, it's Sunday, we don’t have to work today, so let’s have band practice on Sunday morning.
Josiah: It’s like trying to make it fit and trying to keep up at some points. We’ve had two shows in a weekend while we’re working 60, 70 hours, and it's just like… it's tough.
JP: It's just like a constant race, a constant battle.
Ian: It keeps us locked in, though, because then we know what we want to do, [and] we only have like 3 hours today to do this, so we need to do this.
Josiah: There are a lot of moments like that where you'll be super focused and time sensitive, and then everything opens up. We can just play around and be ourselves, be a band, a brotherhood, or something.
*ALL LAUGHING*
Josiah: And then it's back to…
Ian: Gotta get back to the real world. It feels like I'm living a double life. It's very “double life.”
JP: It's jarring.
Ian: It is, it is.
Josiah: You have these dopamine crashes. You feel like everything is right and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, and the next day you wake up…
Ian: Just like “What the hell.”
JP: Back to the dystopia. I gotta do the dishes. I gotta go to work.
Josiah: Yeah, so it’s like…it makes you realize that everybody is a person, even the people you idolize or the people you looked at as like celestial beings. You're truly just human.
A Quick Sidebar: On Comparison
Josiah: Even being in a band, I’ll hear other people play and be like “Damn, he’s everything I want to be—everything I’m not,” and you have to realize there’s things you’re good at that they’re not as well [at], so you have to focus on what you’re good at—what you like. It’s really like you’re stabbing yourself every time you compare your craft to another.
Ian: Yeah, you can’t compare your craft to another; it’s like stabbing yourself.
Brendon: Music is supposed to be fun.
Praise to the Engineer: The Impact of John Christopher Hughes
Ian: I think we need to shout out John Christopher Hughes [JCH], our engineer. He, like, took us under his wing and guided us, gave us everything we needed. We did like five pre-mixes of all the songs.
Josiah: He came to our studio room to record us—
Ian: He came to my house to record us!
Josiah: He came to your house! He took such an extra step and initiative to be like, “I wanna do this with you guys.”
Ian: It's not just like “Give me your money, I’ll record you.” It’s like “We’re gonna make something.”
JP: He sees our potential. He’s like, “I see something different in you guys.”
Josiah: And someone with his experience is, like, invaluable, because everything before the 2000s—that knowledge of the industry and how music was recorded in the 80s, and 70s, and 60s—that is such crucial information, and he has it. You don't feel like you're doing anything modern or contemporary, you feel like you're stepping back and being like “What is music?” and he really…I don’t know, he really—
Ian: He’s also very untraditional.
Josiah: That’s like the theme for us, is untraditional, old-school, pulling out the old tricks, you know? JCH will be doing something, and we’ll be like “What are you doing, man?” and he’s like “This is a trick from me and my buddies back in the late 80s, early 90s.”
Ian: “You put a shoe on the mic!”
*ALL LAUGHING*
Josiah: “Stuff a toilet paper roll full of paper towels!”
Amaia: Oh, that’s awesome.
Josiah: Yeah, he's a great guy. He’s cared so much about it in a way, like, how no one else has
Ian: He’s kinda fathered it in a way. He’s like “Come on, guys.”
Josiah: He’s kinda like a cool uncle, ya know?
Ian: “Everybody, come in, gather round.”
Josiah: Yeah, cause like, we're not traditional musicians, we’re not classically trained, so, like, we’re not playing to a clip track, sitting down and recording part by part. Everything we do has to be very moment-to-moment. Everything’s by ear, we don’t use a clip track at all, right?
Ian: No, no clip track.
Josiah: We’re, like, kinda bending the BPM throughout the song, up and down.
JP: We don’t even know the chords we’re playing.
Ian: I don’t know a single chord I play in any song!
JP: “Uh, key of seventh fret.”
Josiah: It’s a challenge for all of us, and also [for] John to produce because he’s like “How am I gonna record this band?” you know what I mean? “These guys don’t know what they’re doing!”
Ian: In a way, it’s easier for him because we know what we’re doing—we feel what we’re doing, you know?
Josiah: He allowed us to be comfortable and to capture what we do, rather than forcing us into a new mold or a new format, you know? Yeah, super cool guy.
JP: I feel like a lot of our music is less about the actual sound of it and [more about] the feeling of the room; kinda like a “Something in the air,” you know what I mean?
Josiah: Like you’re there with it.
JP: Right, and that’s what he’s been really helping us capture with these recordings.
The Recording Process
Josiah: The way music is recorded now can feel very separated and compartmentalized. It feels distant, you know—you don't feel like you're a part of it.
JP: Processed (inaudible).
Josiah: Yeah, really processed like, how they produce. You know, people are going to studios where they’ve spent 15 million dollars on just microphones.
JP: Yeah.
Josiah: How do you even choose the right piece at that point? There are too many options.
Ian: That’s where John comes in and says, “You need this one—use this.”
JP: Yeah, yeah.
JP: We’re trying to get that raw kinda sound, as if you’re showing up to a show and you're listening to the band play. Like, the late 70s, like Led Zeppelin and all that stuff. It wasn't so—
Josiah: Yeah! He makes it sound like our best set we’ve ever played, you know?
JP: Yeah!
Ian: For sure.
Brendon: Yeah.
Josiah: The first song took like 8 takes.
Ian: Then, the rest was just *snap* *snap* *snap*. We kinda did it all in like two or three days. Like, [with] all the time together, I'd say like three days—which is kinda crazy, because people spend a lot of time doing this stuff.
JP: That’s how all the best albums are. It's either they took a really long time or they did it in less than a week.
Amaia: I feel like the best albums I’ve ever heard take not much time at all, honestly.
The Local Scene
Josiah: The whole community kinda accepted us with open arms.
Ian: We came in and they were like “Who is this?” and then were like “You’re welcome here.”
Josiah: Buy Her Candy! They—I’ve literally hugged them so many times, they’re great.
Ian: All of Martyridge are really close friends too.
Josiah: Olive!
JP: Yeah.
Josiah: We used to watch Olive play, and then all of a sudden we’re playing shows with them and it feels very full circle.
Ian: It did, it did.
Josiah: Everyone’s been really nice
Ian: We used to go to shows together, and be like “Man, that could be us!”
*ALL LAUGHING*
Ian: Just plotting.
Josiah: We’re just plotting and scheming!
JP: Rubbing our hands together like *rubs hand*.
Josiah: Yeah, the local bands have helped us a lot, because that encouragement—I think if we played a show and nobody talked to us and nothing happened, it’d feel, like, baaad
JP: We probably wouldn’t still be a band; we’d be like “Damn this is terrible”
Josiah: But like, I don’t know, man, I think what really made me feel like we were actually part of the scene was at our last show when, at the end of the show, they started screaming “Encore!” It's like “Dude! I never thought I’d have someone screaming for an encore!”
Ian: I’ve never gotten an encore before! We botched it, it was horrible. We played the—
JP: We played a song we hadn't touched in months. So bad.
Josiah: And everybody was like *miming faces dropping*.
*ALL LAUGHING*
Josiah: We had people throwing eachother around, and then they all stopped like “I don't wanna be here. Stop, dawg.”
Ian: We get some good mosh pits going on. We got a crowd surfer once.
Amaia: Ooh, nice!
Brendon: I was just gonna say, we get to travel too.
Ian: Oh yeah, we played in Urbana!
JP: Urbana, Wisconsin…
Josiah: Milwaukee!
Ian: We're trying to book more out-of-town shows. I want to touch other people who haven’t heard us.
Entrancement: The Ideal at a St. Clair Show
Josiah: I’ve watched people become fully entranced. We’ll be playing and I’ll just see—
JP: There’s a picture of Daniel!
Josiah: They tend to like…just start looking at the ceiling like “What is going on?”
JP: Just feeling it
Josiah: And maybe yeah, they are drunk, don't get me wrong
Ian: I think that’s the best part: making them feel something. Either it's feeling something that they feel, or they feel what I feel—either way, they feel it.
Josiah: Some sort of connection.
Ian: Yeah.
Josiah: Whether it’s one-way or two-way, and that is like, [the] pinnacle. I think that’s always what I’ve wanted for music. JCH, I remember, before he started working with us, he came out to see us, because he wanted to see how we performed live before he started working with us. And he was like, “Dude, the crowd changed when you got up there!” The previous bands—people were recording and all that. But then, when we started playing, they put their phones down and just wanted to watch.
JP: I feel like, in today’s age, if you can get people to put their phones down and just experience what’s going on, that’s pretty impressive.
Ian: Yeah, it’s something.
Josiah: We’ll have oldheads enjoying it.
Ian: Yeah, old people, young people, everybody.
Josiah: Because you have people who come for the show, and then you have people who are there for the bar and who are like, “I’m just here because I go to this bar,” but they're turning around like, “What’s going on?” Other bartenders who are in bands complimenting us, like…
Ian: There’s this bartender from CBGB—I can’t remember her name.
Josiah: I remember seeing her step out from behind the bar and watch for a second, but then she had to go back. But, like, that’s cool.
Breaking Things: The Whys, The Hows, & The Public Perception
Ian: We tend to break a lot of things
Josiah: I don’t know how it became a thing.
Ian: I’ll throw my guitar, and he [Josiah] will throw his drumset.
Josiah: For me, what I’ve understood that feeling[to be]—it’s like, because I would never set out with the intention to destroy shit
*ALL LAUGHING*
Josiah: Also, like, I'm broke. But I kinda feel like it's—I kinda feel like a jester. There’s something so vulnerable about performing live, and by the end of my set, I'm just like…feelings are getting like—
Ian: It’s like “Look at me, Look at me!”
Josiah: Because I’m literally putting myself out there to be judged, whether they’re thinking good things or bad things. Regardless, me breaking everything in front of you…it’s like “Judge this!”
Ian: There’s this video of [Josiah] where he’s like, writhing on the floor, holding his drumset, shaking a bit, and I’m, like, smashing my guitar and everyone is screaming.
Josiah: [Ian] did like this *motions placing fret board prone over the amp* fucking curb-stomped it! It fucking exploded!
*ALL LAUGHING*
Ian: It was awesome, though.
Josiah: Usually, they snap or something.
Ian: I have like 8 pieces of it at my house.
Josiah: I have a piece of it at my house.
Amaia: *laughing* That’s so good!
Ian: It’s a very expensive habit, though.
Josiah: And there’s a photo of him immediately after holding it like a trophy fish
Ian: Yeah, I was like *smiles and mimes holding a fish*
Josiah: It’s like, dangling, in two pieces.
Amaia: You should photoshop yourself by a creek.
*ALL LAUGHING*
Ian: Yeah, that’d be great!
Josiah: I don’t know why we break stuff.
JP: It just feels right.
Ian: It does.
JP: We don’t break stuff in our personal space, only when we get in front of people and we’re like “AHHH!”
Josiah: It’s also not to be “hardcore” or to be like “I break shit!” We don’t want it to be a staple, we don’t want it ot be like “This is what we do!” It just happens. But people are aware now, and that’s the problem. People are like, “Don’t break anything!”
*ALL LAUGHING*
3. What are you guys hoping for out of the album release show?
Ian: To showcase the album, so people can be like “Wow, you really did something here!” and get to experience that. And also to bring in a new crowd, bring in new people. We’re playing with a few new bands we’ve never played with. So, just exposure—we want people to be able to take it and do as they wish
Josiah: I think it’s gonna be a testament, because at Off Broadway, we’ll get to play more—like, maybe even the full album. So, that kinda show would be really encompassing, and one where we can be a lot more thought out vs [being] like “Oh, let’s come up with this set for tonight and play it.” And yeah, he described exposure, and yeah, this is a bigger venue, so it’s kinda just proving, in a way, that we have that stage presence and we can rock house—rock any house! Rock a bar, rock it outside—you know.
JP: [A] backyard, a venue, a bar.
Ian: I just don’t want to feel like all the work we put into this is for nothing to really come of it.
JP: Not that it has to be like “Oh, the world famous band St Clair!” but I want people to be like, “Oh, these guys may be on to something here.” I don’t know.
Josiah: Yeah, like, as much as you don’t want to seek it out, I think validation is so nice when you get it.
Ian: if you put your heart and soul into your art or whatever work you’re doing, and it turns out that no-one cares, you’re like “Damn, okay, well…I guess I’ll just go back to sitting on the couch and doing whatever.”
JP: But if you can get like two people there, you can be like “I feel better about myself.”
Josiah: What do I want from this album release show?
Ian: I just want them to feel something
JP: Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. I don't want it going in one ear and going out the other.
Brendon: Also, Off Broadway is cool.
Josiah: There are people who've played there who inspired us to do music.
Ian: We’ve seen some famous ass bands there, so to be able to play there is like…I’m kinda like “Oh, I get to stand on the same stage!”
JP: Though we don’t like stages
Ian: Yeah, we want to be on the ground.
Josiah: I want to be tackled…just like, right up in there. I feel like we’re—I want eye contact.
Ian: So the stage is gonna be a little weird for us.
With all of this insight, it’s hard not to get excited over the future of St. Clair. From new connections to new releases, to the addition of a stage, this band is certainly evolving—and you’ll want to be there to see it. Make sure to mark your calendars and keep your eyes peeled—and make sure to head out to their release show on August 8th to hear a live performance of their new release! And, as always, follow their socials for the most up-to-date news on St. Clair. Until next time!