Calling The Dogs in Chicago: Mat Kerekes talks Title Fight, recording new album, and favorite Chicago show
Throughout emo music's constant evolution and waves of eras, Citizen has always remained a prominent figure in modern day emo. However, the band has never been one to remain in the same place sonically, pushing their sound and dynamics more and more with each release. I got the opportunity to hop on a call with lead vocalist Mat Kerekes to talk about the making of their most recent release; "Calling The Dogs", as well as some insight as to what exactly goes through the band's mind during the record making process.
Feature photo of Citizen.
Prior to 2020, the band has had frequent changes in their lineup, with different drummers and lead guitarists, until 2021, when former Title Fight drummer Ben Russin started to tour with them and eventually, make his way as a full-time member of the band, being credited on "Calling The Dogs".
"Yeah, you know, Ben, maybe in like 2014 or 2015, somewhere around there, he reached out because we've always known Ben for a while and the Title Fight guys, and we're obviously huge fans of their band. And Ben hit up Nick [Hamm] and was kind of like, hey, I'm trying to get into tour managing and if Citizen ever needs somebody, I would be interested in doing it. And us being huge Title Fight fans, we were obviously like, ‘Oh, yeah’."
Mat briefly spoke about the departure of former drummer Jake Duhaime in 2020, prior to the recording of the bands 4th studio album "Life In Your Glass World" expressing how it only felt natural to have Ben fill-in those shoes.
"And when it came time to do a new record, he expressed that he was interested in just joining the band. And we welcomed him with open arms, of course. So that's that's how that came about.”
Over this past summer, the band celebrated 10 years of their debut release, "Youth", with some small intimate shows across the United States, and while personally attending both Chicago dates myself and getting to experience just how much the record had resonated and remained special to their fans, I was curious to know if the band intends on embarking on album anniversary tours in the future.
"I'm not ruling anything out. We weren't going to do any "Youth" shows. It kind of just was like, oh, you know, we were against it at first and then we came around to it and we had an amazing time, and I'm so happy we ended up doing it because it was some of the biggest shows we've ever played."
While expressing gratitude for the turnout of the anniversary shows, it's clear that the band is more concerned with the present rather than the future. "It was an emotional and just really awesome time and kind of put a lot of things in perspective for the band. We're not quite there yet for "Everybody's Going To Heaven" [10 year shows], "As You Please", I feel like that's in the in the future. Short answer is: I would like to do something. I don't really know if it'll be a tour or multiple shows or one show. I think Citizen has always just kind of played everything by ear and that's what we'll continue to do."
If you listen to Citizen's current discography front to back, it's evident that they're a band to take risks and move with their gut when approaching the direction of a new album, the band retreated back to Mat's home in Ohio for their last record "Life In Your Glass World" and they even went as far as to self-record and produce the record, and with the addition of two new members into the band, they felt it was imperative to make things feel natural.
"Band morale is huge and, you know, recording [Life In Your Glass World] ourselves was less about the environment and more about making a statement and doing everything ourselves just for the sake of doing it. But with that, we're in Toledo, so the environment is kind of gonna shine through a bit. But for "Calling the Dogs", we had two new members, Ben [Russin] and Mason [Mercer], and it was our first time writing with them and we really wanted to have a bonding experience."
This "less is more" approach that the band took is very evident on both albums, they sound punchy, the production is stripped down, but effective. Almost like a love letter to early 2000s dance-punk and garage rock like Bloc Party and The Strokes. Furthermore, the band decided to do yet another 180 and go with producer Rob Schapf, best known for his work with legendary indie-folk singer-songwriter Elliot Smith, to take charge on "Calling The Dogs".
"We ended up recording the record in L.A. with Rob Schnapf. But it's a good thing we did the cabin because we would not have been ready if we didn't if we just went straight to the studio, you know. Rob is very bare bones and it's kind of like "what you hear is what you get." You're in the studio and he doesn't like to do recording tricks. As opposed to me, If I'm recording a band or my band and I don't like the way the kick drum sounds, I'll just put a sample over it, or blend a sample. I don't care, I'm not too proud about those things. But Rob is like, you know, he's analog guy."
Mat went on to further express the joys of being challenged by Rob to be more punctual during the recording process, expressing how Rob pushed the band to constantly make commitments instead of halfhearted decisions. "We can use a plug-in to maybe get the final sound later or tweak it a little bit. It was kind of like, you might get up and you listen to it through his gear and he kind of EQs and does whatever and he says, you like the way it sounds? OK, cool, and then he records it and that's the way it sounds on the record. He doesn't really like to edit things. You got to play good, you got to sing good, and yeah, we really had to level up as musicians in the studio with Rob. And I think that's pretty cool.
"Calling The Dogs" is unique in the sense that while to many, it could be considered a farcry from the bands older material like "Youth", but the maturity and evolution of Citizen as human-beings is ever so present throughout the album. For example, "Youth" starts off heavy, angsty, with lead track "Roam The Room", with bitter lyrics about a former lover, but on "Calling The Dogs", "Headtrip" is slower, more bittersweet and sonically buoyant. The lyrics being more self-reflective this time around.
In the decade apart between "Youth" and "Calling The Dogs", it's clear that Citizen are not the same kids who wrote "Youth", they have not only grown as individuals outside of the music, but also inside of the music as songwriters.
"The songs that you write the fastest, in my experience, are always the best ones because it just feels natural. The songs that I've spent a ton of time tweaking and changing around and harping over lyrics and are always like everyone's least favorite songs, or they're the songs that just don't get used. So I feel like, a lesson in songwriting that has always stayed with me is, "oh, does this make me feel, what emotion does this make me feel?", and if it doesn't make me feel anything at all, and I just think, "oh, that's a good song", then maybe it shouldn't be put on the record. I hear a lot of songs that are fundamentally good, but if they don't make you feel anything, then I personally don't find myself revisiting songs like that. You know what I'm saying?"
As we got towards the end of our conversation, I wanted to touch on Chicago. Mat has gone on record to claim Chicago as one of his favorite cities to play in, and, being my hometown, we conversed a little about the Windy City, and he reminisced on playing the Subterranean for the first time.
"I think the first time, I really, really was like, "oh, wow, I love Chicago", it was the first time we played the Subterranean. I just remember hearing about how, like, legendary this venue is. [...] I mean, I kept hearing about this venue, nothing really specific, but I just kept hearing like, "Oh, man, this venue is legendary and blah, blah, blah." I was like, "oh, that's pretty cool." And we went and played there and it was just chaos. People were just losing their minds, which is hilarious because we're like, especially at the time, like very much so an emo band. But I just remember like just being totally blown away. And I always had a good impression of Chicago before that, but it completely exceeded my expectations. Every time we play Chicago, it's just something really awesome. It's whenever anybody asks me my favorite places to play, my immediate thought, Chicago is in the top five for sure.”
It came time for our conversation to come to a close, and with that, we both expressed excitement for the upcoming Chicago show.
"It'll be good to go out with a bang. You know what I'm saying?"