Gladie, the current band fronted by former Cayetana vocalist Augusta Koch, will release new album “Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out” on November 18th via Plum Records, the label started by Cayetana. It’s Gladie’s first with a set full-band line-up, including co-founding member Matt Schimelfenig (who also recorded and mixed it) on guitars, keyboards, and vocals, as well as guitarist Pat Conaboy (Spirit of the Beehive), bassist Dennis Mishko (ex-Tigers Jaw), and drummer Miles Ziskind (Honey, Witching). It also features horns by Mike Park and Brian Lockrem, and cello by AJJ’s Mark Glick.
The new full-band setup really comes alive on lead single “Nothing,” which finds Gladie leaning into their loud, lively punk side. It’s a ripper, it’s super catchy, and it’s got us excited to hear the rest of this album. “This song came from a thought experiment based on what ultimately ended up being the chorus of the song ‘What would it feel like to want Nothing?'”, Augusta told us. “Basically, in all aspects of life, whether its relationships, consumerism, or any other constant desire, there is always this push from external and internal forces telling you, ‘More, More, More’ but is that really a healthy way to live? Maybe it’s more fruitful to actually want less to make you appreciate that what you do possess is greater than it seems.
Along with an early stream of the full album, Augusta Koch breaks down the second album from her post-Cayetana project track by track.
“Don’t Know What You’re in Until You’re Out”, the second LP from Augusta Koch’s project Gladie, seems to explore every facet of this idea, from Koch’s new (literally) sober perspective on her adult years to the fact that a considerable faction of the record was rescued from previous recordings that were, in Koch’s own words, “not good.”
Working in their own studio granted the five-piece the time and space to fully explore the musical and lyrical ideas that comprise these 11 tracks about hitting the replay booth and analyzing the footage from a new and slightly removed vantage point, totally unmoored from the strong feelings that proved overwhelming in the moment. “We decided to name the record this because it deals a lot with the theme of shifting into a new mindset, and with that change you can objectively look back and see what you were going through without your thought processes being clouded by being in the thick of it,” Koch explains.
1. “Purple Year”
Perhaps not the most original idea, but very relevant to the title, the record begins how it ends. The same chords and cello (played by our very talented friend, Mark Glick) that are in “Something Fragile” are present here, just a little more stripped down and with an uneasy feedback swell slowly swallowing any form that the song started with. We thought this would be a cool way to signal to the listener [hacker voice] “I’m in.” I don’t know, The Weakerthans did it on “Reconstruction Site” and they literally can do no wrong.
2. “Born Yesterday”
“Born Yesterday’” was written about eight months into not drinking anymore. I felt like I was experiencing a second adolescence. I was completely overwhelmed and flooded with emotions.
3. “Mud”
“Mud” is about moving through life as a late bloomer. There’s kind of this trope about late bloomers being a negative thing, but personally I find it to be the opposite. To me, all good things take time to marinate, and we should embrace the fact that people move on different timelines. Nature doesn’t all bloom at the same time.
4. “Hit the Ground Running”
I did a lot of evaluating what love means during this time. While reading bell hooks’ book All About Love I was inspired to think of my own love ethic. I landed on “to love in a way that the other person still feels free.” I want to love and be loved in a way that doesn’t feel restrictive, and where there is always room for growth. My favorite part about this song is the horn part that Mike Park and Brian Lockerm created.
5. “Nothing”
I kept kind of coming back to this idea of not wanting anything—not in a depressing way or necessarily a nihilistic way, but just of taking the word “want” out of my vocabulary. How that feels to not always be forcing a progression, that constant American agenda to push and push and push and push until you die.
6. “Soda”
“Soda” is a love song, maybe not your typical love song. The song at its root is about being around people who make you feel comfortable in your skin. I use the word “normal” in jest because a lot of what our society deems as “normal” behavior is kind of, in my opinion, wrong and isolating to a lot of people. We are taught to hate ourselves, that we aren’t enough, love has conditions, etc. “Soda” imagines a world where we can create our own “normal” when we’re around the people that make us feel seen.
7. “Heaven, Someday”
“Heaven, Someday’” was written during the height of the 2020 doomscroll-bad-news factory, when we were all putting in overtime. It’s about trying to combat the fear of the outside world and your inner demons at the same time. There’s still some hope to hold onto, though, and it’s important to remember that even both the inside and outside feel inhabitable.
8. “Fixer”
This was a song I [Matt] wrote a couple years ago, but it never got a proper recording/release and it felt like it fit with the theme of the record, so we decided to include it. It’s about recognizing parts of your past that can make your present feel shaky and your future feel uncertain. Sometimes you need to look back to understand what’s ahead of you, even if there’s some difficult reconciliation to be done.
9. “Smoking”
“Smoking” was written about having a panic attack in a gas station parking lot in the town I grew up in. More thoughtfully, though, it’s about having one of those huge life moments when you know everything’s about to change forever and you have to gear up and just let it happen.
10. “For a Friend”
“For a Friend” is about having to witness someone you love grieving the life of someone they love. Acknowledging the fact that there’s not much you can do for someone who’s experiencing that type of pain except for sitting with them through it.
11. “Something Fragile”
This song is about coming out of a bad place and acknowledging the fact that depression can create blinders in your relationships. I felt like it made sense being the last track because it encapsulates so much of what the record is about. Can we move through huge life changes, in relationships with the ones we love, while allowing them to also grow and change at the same time?
Augusta Koch – guitar, vocals
Matt Schimelfenig – guitar, keyboard, vocals
Pat Conaboy – guitar
Dennis Mishko – bass
Miles Ziskind – drums
“Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out” on November 18th via Plum Records
The Fat Angel Sings 