CIVILIAN

Civilian | Credit: Lindsey Grace Whiddon

Ryan Alexander feels like he spent two-and-a-half weeks in a sleepless blitz while writing Civilian’s sophomore album “You Wouldn’t Believe What Privilege Costs,” a collection of sociopolitical songs tinged with the religious burdens of his youth.

Rivers | Credit: Lindsey Grace Whiddon

A lapsed Christian before he began fronting his Nashville quartet of indie-rock heroes, the Fort Lauderdale native assembled all 12 songs in one cathartic writing spree in early 2015: attending Hialeah’s Miami Dade Christian Academy, losing his religion, blending in politics. “There’s a reason to believe we’re a gun in the hand of a con man/We’re a brick in the wall around the problem,” Alexander sings with sneering resentment in the sharp and driving single “Reasons,” a lyric which targets the role of God in his childhood. “When I walked away from my religion, I felt like I committed social suicide,” Alexander, 30, recalls by phone. “I really wanted to write a critique of how I was brought up – not how my parents treated me – but the culture, from a post-evangelical perspective.  It definitely felt like I needed to mourn something, but I didn’t know what.”

Of course, the band’s had nothing to mourn since decamping from Fort Lauderdale to Nashville two years ago. Civilian, which signed with Tooth and Nail Records in August, is now composed of Alexander and Fort Lauderdale native Dan Diaz on bass, drummer Jonathan Thomas (ex Tampa) and guitarist John Fiorentino.  “You Wouldn’t Believe What Privilege Costs” continues Alexander’s vision for Civilian, with dark, atmospheric rock that’s engraved with the heart-on-sleeve values of early-aughts emocore inspired by Death Cab for Cutie and the punk salvos of Jimmy Eat World.

But Alexander’s full-length album, the first since 2012’s “Should This Noose Unloosen,” wallows less in self-pity than in hopefulness. “People will see this album as a coping mechanism, but right now I have to work toward more patience and understanding,” Alexander says. “I can always tell when an artist holds back, and I’ve tried not to for the arc of my career, but now I see with this election that evangelical America, the one I used to belong to, had been biting their tongue for a long time. And I needed to address that.”

Civilian perform with Rivers Thursday, Dec. 22 at Respectable Street, 518 Clematis St., in West Palm Beach. Doors 8:30pm. Cover $10. CivilianSounds.Squarespace.com. 

~ Phillip Valys