Modern Color, In Passing, With Rambler Magazine
Bringing a distinctive energy and personal flair to alternative rock, Modern Color from the greater South Bay area, sat down with me to talk new takes on the upcoming record, unique approaches to songwriting, and upcoming tour with Fleshwater! Follow along for the revealed journey of this relentlessly DIY focused band, and what’s coming next for them.
To start off if you could introduce yourselves and your role in the band.
Fleming: I’m the lead singer and I play guitar in Modern Color.
Vince: I’m Vince, I play drums, and I do backup vocals.
I also am really interested in what your first show experience (that ultimately got you interested in pursuing music as a career) was like?! Who played, notable venues etc.
Vince: I can’t remember the exact moment, I just remember that I moved elementary schools in the South Bay where we’re from, and there was a group of kids that already had a band and they were kind of already in the swing of it (as much as kids can be), they were doing covers and just playing shows in their backyard kind of thing, so it felt like I was just thrown into it and I wanted to really fit in with them, and just be a part of it. So yeah, it was really just meeting them and being introduced to all the music they listened to, seeing that they already had a band, they played music, and they made it seem like [...] it was the coolest thing ever.
Fleming: My family was always pretty into music, and I always wanted to play guitar as a little kid, I think when I was like thirteen or fourteen and we were going to some venue in L.A. to see my first scene show with some post-hardcore bands. It was like ‘oh my god this is crazy.’ You know, you’re at a venue for the first time, you see the lights, you feel like live music in a space where you’re excited about the genre and what you’re seeing, it’s not just like what your parents are into, that was a pretty big and exciting moment for me. But, I don’t know, Vince and I were kind of just into this pretty young and I think it was just at the right age where we were like ‘I;m going to let this consume me.’ We were just going to play music, that’s all we really wanted to do.
Vince: I feel like where we grew up in the South Bay, has a pretty insulated little scene where we grew up directly next to other kids in our town or in surrounding towns had bands already, and there was already a pre-made culture it felt like, and we were just going into it. There was nothing that we had to make ourselves, [...] and it was cool.
What are some of the inspirations for Modern Color either musical or nonmusical?
Fleming: I think the general motivation behind Modern Color originally, and I think it’s still kind of true, is Vince and I kind of grew up playing metal and metalcore, and really this band was kind of a project to say ‘let’s just do whatever we want to.’ Let’s create the kind of music that we’ve always really wanted to either because of not fitting into certain genre boundaries or whatever, we were just kind of fed up with what we were doing at a certain point. We were like let’s just have the creative expression that we’ve always wanted to have, which is just do whatever we want. I think once we jumped off and held that, that’s what really motivated the band to take all these weird steps and sound changes to really rebel us.
Vince: I feel like we’ve always been really inspired by an amalgamation of things, and before we were playing mostly metalcore and metal music, and at a certain point it just got stale. It felt like what we were trying to do wasn’t fully expressed in just metal or heavy music. Modern Color was just a reaction to just wanting to have more fun with playing, and I think we wanted to play more melodic music at the time too, and stuff that wasn’t so outright aggressive or technical or whatever. A lot of the bands that we were listening to specifically at the time were like: Deafheaven, Dinosaur Jr., Turnover, and Title Fight. I wouldn’t say Title Fight was the main inspiration behind the band, but it was a band that paved a way for us to be like ‘oh, that’s doable. We can do that and we can have fun with that, and that’s a way for us to express ourselves that feels closer to what we can achieve (at the time).’ This was like seven years ago now.
One of the strongest parts of Modern Color as a whole is the lyrical content - you all are great storytellers, and it makes the songs really immersive to listen to. What is the writing process like?
Vince: It’s funny that you say that because one of the things that we consciously tried to work on, on the new record, was the way that we tell stories through the lyrics, and try to really narrow in on what makes MC, MC…not that what we had written before was not us, but it wasn’t as personal as it could’ve been. We were trying to shoot for expressing something that we were feeling at the time, but I feel like on this upcoming record, Fleming took more of a lead in writing the lyrics. Before it was about 75/25, I wrote some of it and Fleming wrote the majority of it, and then I came in and I just changed tiny things according to how it feels. This new record moreso, I think Fleming took the most lead on writing than before, as well as telling more personal stories.
Fleming: A lot of the lyrics leading up to this were definitely very personal and emotional moments, but I don’t think I had a great grasp on how to articulate that in a way that’s more accessible, but I think with this new record and going forward it was like, ‘I want to tell specific stories in time of growing up where we grew up etc.’ I feel like that’s where we’re at now– a little more mature.
Vince: Our earlier stuff was us talking about things in a lens that was fitting for the type of music we were playing. Not that it was driven by the music, but I feel like now more so we’re actually telling real stories from our past experiences rather than trying to metaphorically express it or poetically express it– we’re more direct I feel like.
Listening to Modern Color it’s clear the experimental sound you all have, blending styles of rock, & with one of your most popular songs at the moment, “Pale,” from the 2020 album, pulling more of a seemingly post-hardcore post-rock vibe, compared to other tracks, is there an aim to continue to transcend and explore different genres as an established Modern Color sound? Or even just with the upcoming album?
Vince: I think what’s always driven Modern Color, is what we’re listening to at the time of writing the music, as well as just us playing together in a room and how it feels when we do that. A lot of the writing that we do is with all of us together in a room. I’d say with “Pale” specifically and a lot of the earlier music, especially in regards to how we handled vocals, I feel like a lot of people are really attached to the screaming. It’s not something that we’re trying to move away from, but it’s definitely something that we’re trying to use more tastefully. When we were writing “Pale,” we were screaming because we didn’t know how to sing. Because I feel like we were trying to find what to do with vocals and Fleming and I were like ‘okay, let’s just do it ourselves.’ Like a lot of the earlier vocals were pretty much all screaming. As Fleming is finding his voice so to say, I think we’re getting more comfortable with learning how to express ourselves more melodically. This album more than ever is more songwriting and more Fleming-forward. I feel like we brought back old MC tricks in a more tasteful way.
Yeah, with your guys’ growth as people and even as bandmates together, you’re bound to experience some sort of stylistic changes.
Vince: Yeah, we’ve had this talk before where we feel like this is our most rock or alt-rock inspired album. Most people would consider us an emo band through and through. I feel like each of our releases have a little something different based on what we were going through at the time, but this is definitely the most rock influenced album and I’m excited to get it out!
Fleming: I think Vince kind of hit it on the head, maybe it’s from coming from punk and hardcore, but as a musician I’ve always felt a little bit of imposter syndrome just because the style of music isn’t as traditional as what you see all around you. So I think as we’ve gotten better individually and together, it’s really helped us express ourselves. So the genres in between I think is just the vehicle for expressing what we’re trying to express, so whatever shape that takes is what it takes, but it’s been fun. I think I’ve been trying to make the simplest song sound interesting– you listen to all these great rock songs and it’s just simplicity but it’s effective and emotional, and how do we get to that? How do we become the most effective songwriters that we can? I think that’s my biggest push at least when it comes to all this.
You guys have some big things in store for 2024, like the upcoming tour with Fleshwater! Do you have any expectations for the tour, or what are you most looking forward to from this experience?
Fleming: I’m just excited to rock. Every tour that comes up, I’m just like: ‘cool, I get to play music live for a month.’ This one specifically will be a little more exciting, we toured with Vein.fm a couple years ago so it will be fun to hangout with them. The shows are pretty much all sold out so we just have to show up and have some fun. I’m excited.
Vince: Something happened during the pandemic and I feel like every time we’ve played since then our expectations are kind of shattered. So I think we’re going in with no expectations other than to have fun and play the best we can. It’s all going to be good.
Speaking of tour and upcoming plans for this year, with the single, “Fortress,” coming out in October, and an album on the way, what new things are you aiming to do with this record, if any?
Vince: This album is the most rock influenced album, so I think we’re excited to just show a different side of Modern Color. I feel like over the pandemic people really latched onto “From the Leaves of Your Garden,” which was cool we really appreciate it because it’s only given us success and some of the best times we’ve had over the past few years, but we’re excited to expand what people think of us and not be so solely defined by “From the Leaves…” I feel like this is a really personal album in the way that we wanted to tell more direct stories as well as write more direct songs, and kind of try to be deep and expressive in a way that is cool and simple and not over-complicated. I’m excited to get that out, and in our minds it’s only a step to writing more music– like we’re already working on music beyond this LP and a lot of it is sounding, just super cool.
Fleming: I think the only thing I can add to that is I really hope to offer an honest inside into who we are as people and musicians and especially with this record with the storytelling and the subtle changes to our songwriting– I want to tell more stories and I want to have this record hit people in a way that helps or is impactful. That’s all I want to do.
If there could be one track you recommend or promote to a new-listener, to pull them into the Modern Color community, what track would it be, and why?
Vince: I mean probably right now, “Fortress,” because it’s our newest track and it’s what’s going to be on the front lines of Modern Color.
Fleming: If I had to indoctrinate someone, through all of our music in one song, it would probably have to be “Jacaranda.” I feel like that is the song that is upbeat and has a lot of our style and flavor that’s like Modern Color in two minutes.
Can you share the story behind your band name, "Modern Color," and what it represents to you?
Vince: Yeah I remember the specific time and place that we were at– we were trying to figure out a band name for one of our metal bands and at the time our bassist, Chris now, was throwing out random names. I’m pretty sure this was a joke (at the time it was really popular to throw together like an adjective and a color) but we were putting out joke pairings. It got around to like Vintage something and then it was just Modern Color. We were like, ‘oh that sounds cool.’ So, we pocketed it. I think maybe two years later that was when Modern Color formed, and we brought that back because it felt more fitting at the time.
Any final thoughts or words to share to listeners and readers?
Vince: I’m excited to play shows and I’m excited to put this album out. The music will be out before the tour, so yeah, I’m excited.
Fleming: Listen to Modern Color! Come to a show, come say hi!
With obvious inspirations like Dinosaur Jr. and the Pixies, Superheaven-esque heart-on-sleeve style lyricism, and an upcoming album transcending previous releases, fans and even new-listeners can see Modern Color is a band to watch. Follow their Spotify and socials for insider information on what’s next!
Written by: Allie Payne (@alliepaynex_)
Published on: March 7th, 2024