Citizen, one of our favorite young bands, recently released a new EP called Young States. The EP is currently streaming, but will eventually be formally released via Either/Or Records. Nick Hamm from the band was kind enough to write up a Track-By-Track description behind each of the five songs on the EP. Read up below!

“Untitled”
This was the first song we wrote from the record. The demo of it was called “Newssey” for months, so it’s really hard for us to call it “Untitled.” It’s probably the most upbeat, so we thought it was appropriate to be the opener as well. Lyrically, it’s just sort of about the way something terrible can happen to you, and it ends up translating to one of the best things to happen to you. The song came together after our first time really being away from home with the band. The whole theme goes hand in hand with coming from a town where there is no scene to cater to you. I guess it s inspired a lot by frustrations but simultaneous relief.

“Young States”
We’re a young band. Essentially everything we do is wrapped around a youthful state of mind and we’re not really sure whether it puts us at a disadvantage or not. But, this song is about mistakes being made that you just can’t take back. More importantly, it is about someone continuing those mistakes regardless of the issues that arise from them. This problem is reoccurring for most people but especially in the case of being younger. We re still growing up and learning from those mistakes so it is pretty relevant to us right now.

“I Still Shut My Eyes”
This one is centered around anger (maybe ironically, considering it is the calmest of the five). Mat wrote the lyrics about him dealing with his own issues, and embracing isolation after getting angry. It is essentially regarding holding grudges even after the situation seems to be resolved.

“Detached”
We write about this subject so much, but I guess it’ s just because we aren’t creative enough to write about other cool stuff. This song is pretty simply about not feeling right in your surroundings, but not really knowing anything else. We’ve been playing this one for a while, and it’s the first one we released off of the record.

“Right Through”
This song is pretty personal. The lyrics are pretty literal and upfront. It’s just about being lied to by someone very close to you. I tend to hold onto things like this, but I know in the end the way I feel about that person hasn’t changed. This song is basically something I wanted to get off my chest and sort of served as a white flag in terms of arguing over it.