CORNERS

Published on March 4th, 2015

CORNERS

When Corners returns to Delray Beach and Miami with a new album under their belt, expect a different sound. Their 2012 album Beyond Way, with its fuzzy, sparse psychedelic sound, placed them in the mix of psych-rock bands in the Los Angeles scene of Echo Park. The new album, Maxed Out on Distractions, is a band renewed and focused. Speaking via phone, bassist/vocalist Robert Cifuentes takes immense pride in the record but admits, “The Maxed Out on Distractions record nearly broke me. It was a very hard record to do.”

Cifuentes, who often co-writes the songs with Corners founder and frontman Tracy Bryant, was crowned the album’s unofficial producer, though all four of the band’s members, which also include drummer Rick Mabery and guitarist/vocalist Jeffertitti, all have serious engineering experience. The band talked it out granted Cifuentes the reigns to record the band. “We all talked it out,” says speaking via phone from L.A. “I knew it was big step away from what the band was before, so I knew there had to be someone who could take the lead on it and just try it out.”

He invested in some vintage equipment, including an Ensoniq synthesizer from the 80s, and set out to record an album influenced by postpunk vinyl record from the late 70s and early 80s. He cites Warsaw, the predecessor to the more-polished sounding Joy Division as a great influence. “I just love the rawness of Warsaw, and when you hear it it felt like it was a band. It wasn’t very produced. I’m not sure if it was very well produced in that way, and I went for that.”

The revamped sound is more suited to the way the quartet performs. “It’s all in the energy. It’s all there and focused. But it’s just who we are as a band. We didn’t try to have that much energy. When people go crazy and mosh during the shows, we don’t plan for that. We love that. We come from a background of playing parties and playing very angsty shows. There’s a lot of fuckin’ kids coming out who want to have a good time, so we weren’t going to play ballads or try to keep it easy. We got a lot of anger within ourselves. We use that anger to channel it and kind of just bring it out.”