DISCOVERING ELSEWHERE WITH SET IT OFF
From their tour bus in Philadelphia, Set It Off join Emily via Zoom to discuss the world of Elsewhere and their experiences online for Issue #3.
YOU HAVE A DAY OFF TODAY! HOW’S THE TOUR GOING SO FAR?
CODY: The shows have been absolutely phenomenal. We get to play shows again. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. We’ve been missing it for so long. We got to cross something off our bucket list - we played Orlando House of Blues and sold it out. That was where we’d go to see our favorite bands play. It’s just been a dream come true to be doing this again, we’re so grateful.
WHAT ARE THE GREATEST ASPECTS OF TOURING AND PLAYING IN FRONT OF BIG CROWDS?
CODY: For me personally, it’s the realization that we’re all going through very similar problems. There’s this unspoken connection when the songs are being played and everyones screaming the words. You see people saying it and emoting it differently. There’s somebody in the crowd that is doing it with pain behind their eyes, with energy, with anger.
You’re getting through something right now, and I’m getting through something right now too. There’s always a way to cope through it, it’s an incredible bond that exists throughout the show, and that’s probably one of the most magical things to me about shows. It really does feel like a group effort to vent and cope.
HOW DID YOUR SONG WITH AS IT IS COME ABOUT? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR IT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE!
photo by dylan fipps
CODY: Well, they reached out to me, ‘cause we’ve known them for so long. They were like “we want to do something really intense, pop punk, like My Chem style.” I was like “okay! I haven’t written like that in a while, but i’m down.” They sent me an instrumental - it was really intense and fast-paced. I sent memos back that night. We go there the next day and we throw everything away.
We got these influences - one of them was starting with these big hits, from the beginning of the song.. That was kind of inspired by The Weeknd’s ‘The Hills’. We liked how attention-grabby that was. Then I believe the producer was the one who created the guitar line, going up and down chromatically. He had this octave pedal. There’s a video on my TikTok of me on the floor, working the pedal with my hands to get these smooth slides.
We then started understanding what the vibe of the song was. Patty was hitting us with these really incredible lyrics, “tragedy comes in threes, third degree apathy.” It took us a day, we got it all written, and then we were just waiting to see who was gonna be on the third verse. We can’t call it ‘In Threes’ and just have two people on it, you know? We tracked down Jordy Purp, a really great and hardworking dude, an incredible artist as well. We got him on a verse and the rest is history, ‘In Threes’. Apparently it’s doing really well over there, and I’m really excited to hear that.
‘NEON GORE’ IS A COMMON VISUAL THEME THAT YOU’RE EXPLORING WITH ELSEWHERE. WHAT MADE YOU CHOOSE THAT COLOUR PALETTE AND WHERE DID IT ORIGINATE FROM?
MAXX: I think the idea of Elsewhere is that you have these bright colours contrasted with this dark imagery. If you’ve seen the music videos, in ‘Skeleton’ you’ve got Cody having this open heart surgery and blood going everywhere, so it’s kind of the contrast of those two things.
That stems from the idea of when we were at home during 2020, 2021, having to come to terms with and spend time with yourself, learn about yourself. I started going to therapy. When I had my first breakthrough, it was very exciting because I finally started realising why these things were happening, but it almost felt like the floodgates then opened. I went from feeling nothing to feeling everything, all of the good, all of the bad, all at the same time.
I wanted to try and find a way to show that visually. That’s where the idea came from, along with the idea that everything felt so dark and gloomy and exhausting during that time, that I just kind of wanted to stray away from that, do the opposite, bring some light to this every day, mundane exhaustion.
photo by dylan fipps
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE DONE AS A BAND TO KEEP YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES INTERESTING AND CONTINUING TO REEL MORE AND MORE FANS IN?
CODY: I think just being as unapologetically ourselves as possible. I think there are a lot of artists out there that are, but some aren’t. I think if we were growing up listening to a band, we would want to connect with a band that we feel is being entirely themselves.
We make an effort to reach out and be in touch with them. We truly believe that the culture we create is important and I think we’ve done a good job of that. We have a fanbase filled with smart, funny, kind people. They look out for each other. It’s nice to know that that’s something we’ve been blessed with. Whether it’s through Instagram, Twitch..
In that interim period when we couldn’t tour, which of course we were devastated, we didn’t want to feel like we were gonna lose touch with them. There was one time where we couldn’t tour for a while, so we went to YouTube. When we all had a place together, we made YouTube videos all the time, just to make sure we could give them the content they wanted. Now we’re able to get in front of them and have them get to know us on a personal level.
It’s always been really important to us, so we just do our best to make sure we’re giving everybody exactly what they want from us.
YOU STARTED OUT ON YOUTUBE BACK IN 2008 - I REMEMBER THE VIDEO YOU MADE REQUESTING TO SING ON STAGE WITH ALL TIME LOW! HOW DO YOU THINK THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA HAS CHANGED SINCE THEN?
CODY: It’s changed dramatically. Even just going back to what you were talking about. First of all, full circle moment, we’re playing that venue where he let me sing on stage, we’re now headlining that venue for the first time. I stopped doing covers because it used to be as simple as sitting in front of a camera, doing a one take acoustic cover and posting it on YouTube.
There was a really unique thing that I took advantage of where you could reply as a comment with a video. It was a really good way for me to market those videos. I’d go to the original song and use it as a reply. You can’t do that anymore. You can’t just have a one take video.
Well, they might be coming back, but for a while there was this new wave of overproduced things. People were trying to pass it off as if they were really performing it live. I realised it was the new standard and the amount of work I had to put into it when I’d rather be putting it into our band... It just didn’t make sense to me.
Unfortunately I did have to fall off that for a little bit, but then also the amount of access that is out there now.. There’s great things about it and there’s scary things about it. I absolutely hate Twitter now, I really do. It’s just a cesspool of arguments. There’s always somebody they’re trying to tear down. Every time you open the app, it’s like “Who’s gonna yell at me today?” I hate feeling like that.
There’s a song that’s going to be coming out that’s entirely about that, that feeling. It’s the good and the bad, but what in life is not? Everything has its great side, everything has its downside. There’s amazing things with TikTok, there’s terrible things with TikTok. You just have to roll with the punches, take the good with the bad, we do our best to do so, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect us.
AS TIKTOK HAS GROWN, WE’VE SEEN YOUR GROWTH ON THE PLATFORM.. WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT USING TIKTOK AS A BAND?
CODY: Interacting with each other and making funny bits on there. Just being able to reply and stitch with all those things. We feel like we’re doing a good job with this new album cycle because people recently started calling us industry plants. So Mac our videographer and photographer, he’s just a really funny dude, he’s been learning how to do these 8-bit animations. He surprised us with the video we posted on our TikTok, like “you guys have to see this!” We were like “oh my god, we’ve gotta post this.” It’s basically us as plants, on stage. We just leaned into the joke. We used to be afraid to do that sort of thing, to kind of snap back, but we’re sassy so we don’t mind.
MAXX: There’s also something cool about what Cody was saying, how social media changed to being overproduced and very high quality. I think TikTok kind of swung it in the opposite direction. Now people like watching certain people in their daily lives. They don’t want some crazy overproduced video, they just want them to pick up their phone and say something funny or stupid. They just want a real moment.
photo by dylan fipps
CODY: You know what’s crazy? Compare it to what music was popular then too. So in 2008, 2009, we had the sort of four-on-the-floor, all synths, no rock bands on the Top 40 radio, and that was when overproduction was the main thing on social media. You had to fake it til you made it, “look how famous and expensive I sound.” Now, pop punk has started to make its way back, which is a very organic form of music, and now people want more organic posts. It’s kind of crazy to think about the correlation between what’s popular. You can see it directly relates to what kind of content people want to consume. It’s just nice to know that we are in that era and I hope that era sticks around for a lot longer.
MAXX: But here’s the problem…
CODY: Uh oh, here’s more!
MAXX: Oh there’s more! So the idea is, now you just want to post whatever right? There’s the classic ‘photo dump’ on Instagram, which is just “oh these are just some photos from my camera roll, whatever, I don’t even care.” But, these people are curating and editing them in a way that makes it look like they don’t care. So then, it looks like daily life, and then you’re comparing yourself to something that isn’t real.
CODY: Which is toxic!
MAXX: You need to be constantly aware when you see people on social media, TikTok, Instagram, whatever, and you go “oh my god they look so perfect, they’re not even trying,” - they’re trying so hard! Do not compare yourself to that, because it’s not real.
WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU THINK THIS BAND DOES THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS EVEN SCRATCHED THE SURFACE WITH?
CODY: There’s no way to answer that without sounding entirely egotistical. “We are the best thing to ever…” You’re gonna take that clip, It’ll be the headline! “Wow, they’ve really changed…”
If I had to say something that sets us apart is our ability to introduce fully in depth orchestral influences into our songs. I think we’re one of the few bands to have a luxury to play whatever we want, stylistically. I think that’s another reason why our look is the way it is.
People would say all the time that they didn’t know where to place us, because we’ve been heavy, we’ve been poppy, we’ve been kind of classic rocky, we’ve been jazzy. We’ve been all over the place, but it’s all of the things that influence us.
It used to piss us off that people would be like “we don’t know where to place you,” but now we lean into that, it’s something we wear as a badge of honor. We can be whatever you need today. We have a discography full of songs of any mood, genre. I don’t think we’re necessarily a variety band per se, but I think we’re able to grab influences from all genres and still make it seem like us. I’m proud of that.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO FANS WANTING TO WORK IN THE INDUSTRY?- @TALKTOYOURGHOST
CODY: I love this question because I would search on YouTube for my favorite acts answering questions like this. My number one thing would be to take your time to make sure your first album is how you’d want it to stand next to your favorite artist.
The realism is, it’s a very competitive industry, it’s very difficult to find sustained success in this industry. The best thing you can do is write what you love, create what you love to create, and if you love it intensely, there are other people out there that will feel the same way.
Take your time with it and just know that you’ll be getting into what will become a job. The first album you can take your time writing songs because there’s no deadline. After that, you’ve got about 16-18 months to follow that up. You need to get a regime of “okay, I’ve gotta go to work and I’ve gotta write.”
If you’re willing to get in that competitive and hard working mindset, then this is the right industry for you, you will love it. The rewards outweigh the hard work so many times. It’s difficult, it’s hard, it’s filled with ups and downs, you gain a lot of life experience in a rapid course when you’re forced to go out on tour in a van with no money. It’s a difficult trek, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FAST FOOD FRIES? - @MICAHLUMBAN
ALL: Checkers.
CODY: Also known as Rally’s. If you make your way over here, look for a Rally’s or Checkers. We had a debate about this. Do you have Five Guys?
EMILY: Yes we do!
CODY: Okay, so we don’t consider it fast food because there’s no drive-thru. But if that was considered fast food to us, it’s like elevated fast food.
WHAT KEPT YOU GOING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC?- @SXTITOFF
MAXX: The promise of being able to do this again. It’s been the light at the end of the tunnel, that at some point we were gonna get back out here and play. It had been 675 days from our last show in 2020 until this first show of this tour. For 675 days, we were waiting for this.
CODY: It’s the waiting for that, and now we’re waiting for everyone to receive our new album, the new songs, to see how that’s gonna go. That’s always exciting as hell. On a personal note, my fiancée and my two dogs. We got a new dog during the pandemic. Like any relationship forced to be next to each other for a while, we had our ups and downs, but it was a really healthy growing point for us. She’s been my rock, it’s been really nice to have somebody to lean on through this.