Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace Talks ‘Really Different’ New Album
After spending two years on the road touring their excellent 2014 LP Transgender Dysphoria Blues, Against Me! were ready to take this fall off. “We thought maybe it would be good to have a break to address personal issues, or just unpack your apartment – normal shit,” singer-guitarist Laura Jane Grace tells Rolling Stone. “But then we realized that we’ve been writing songs all this time, and we’re really tight right now. It didn’t make sense to lose that momentum. We just wanted to go for it.”
So as soon as they wrapped their final dates of 2015, the punk crew headed straight to a Michigan studio run by their tour manager and front-of-house engineer, Marc Hudson. They’ve spent the last month there laying down tracks for their next LP, which they hope to release in 2016. “We’re at a good place,” Grace says. “We’re going to spend the rest of the year working on the record, and we’re hoping next year will be a busy one.”
As busy as she’s been with other projects in recent years – in addition to touring and releasing a live album with Against Me!, Grace has made a documentary web series and written a book – she says it’s been a prolific period of songwriting. “In a weird way, because I have so many other things going on, it turned writing songs again into an escape,” she says. “‘Oh, I should be doing this, but fuck it, I’ll pick up my guitar again.'”
She says the new album already feels “really different” from Transgender Dysphoria Blues. “The last record was an isolating experience and a solo endeavor in a lot of ways – not to diminish anyone else’s roles, but it was a really personal record,” she says. “I want this one to feel like we’re all in it equally. We’ve been having a really good time playing with each other. We’ll see what that means sonically, but that’s the vibe.”