THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Here are 10 facts about Sea Urchin and Destroy!, written by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Strickland:
1 | I’m from New Jersey, and that’s important to know for the album.
2 | It was recorded mostly in my closet and some in Katie Von Schleicher’s living room.
3 | Most of the songs were written in the wake of a breakup. I got really really sad. Like so sad. Like so so so sad. Just straight-up classic heartache “I’ll never be OK again” kinda shit. But at the same time I also thought there was something really funny about my histrionic sadness. So the album sort of came from me laughing at my own sadness. Then that making me feel sadder which only made it funnier to me. My original goal was to have “sad” in the title of every song.
4 | The record includes songs from genres as diverse as punk, pop-punk, ’50s-inspired garage-punk, hardcore punk, Skynyrd punk, grunge-punk, Meat Loaf punk and frogwave. Maybe sad punk is the best way to say it?
5 | Adam Finchler (drummer on the album) said he couldn’t tell if the album was “funny, adorable, or deeply sad.” And that sort of sums it up.
6 | I think there’s a lot funny about heavy rock, but I love it. In the 1996 documentary Hype, Nirvana producer Jack Endino says, “Yeah, we know that this is heavy rock and heavy rock is kinda stupid, but it’s fun anyways. We know that this is the cheesiest thing we can do, but we gotta do it.” And that is sort of what I’ve based my life around. The idea that something is stupid but I am unable to NOT do it.
7 | I love 1950s rock and roll, especially the dead teenager songs, which is why the album culminates with two of them. Hearing Pearl Jam’s cover of Last Kiss at 11 was a seminal moment for me.
8 | I try to take very silly ideas incredibly seriously. Committing as hard as you can to the silliest idea is something I firmly believe in.
9 | I like bands where the humor is as much in the style and production as the lyrics. I like the idea that something is funny but there aren’t jokes in it. I feel closer to bands like Mudhoney, Suicidal Tendencies, Butthole Surfers and Ween than to Weird Al (no disrespect tho, he’s a legend.) Like, a more self-aware Danzig would be my favorite band of all time.
10 | I would love to make the greatest music video ever made for I Beefed it (On My Motorbike). If someone would like to lend me $100,000. I promise it will be the greatest ever made.”
