The Plot In You Have Turned A Fresh Start Into A Fresh Sound

When a band is multiple albums and several years into their career, with a well-established fanbase, it takes a lot of guts to shift gears and take their sound in a radical new direction. But for some bands, that evolution is something that they need to embrace, even if it means alienating existing followers. To tread water means death for some bands. American heavy act The Plot In You, for example, would rather sink or swim.

The band's first three records ploughed very heavy musical terrain; a grinding, pounding take on the metalcore/post-hardcore sub-genre. Their new album takes them significantly out into left field. Dispose is very much a melodic rock record, which certainly brings the heavy when it feels it needs to, but has brought all manner of new colours, sounds, vibes and textures to the The Plot In You's sound as well. 

"We really wanted to move away from the metalcore sound," says frontman Landon Tewers, when explaining why the group felt they had to take this step in their career. "That's something that we're personally not really that into anymore. It's not that we outgrew it or anything like that, it's just that naturally we gravitated towards different sounds. Overall, we just wanted to make a rock record."

Of course, the term 'rock' means many different things to many different people and Dispose contributes its own unique sensibility and aesthetic to the genre — reflective of how Tewers', one of the band's key songwriters, and the rest of the outfit's personal tastes have progressed. "I've been listening to a lot of different things over the past few years, I've been moving away from heavier stuff," he reveals. "I've been getting into Frank Ocean, R&B type of stuff, a lot more pop music. We've just been experimenting with a lot of new stuff."

Ultimately, after spending well over two years writing, recording and perfecting the record, Tewers and the band could not be happier with the way it has turned out. But, he also admits to a slight touch of trepidation as to how the change is going to be received by fans and critics. "I'm excited by what we've come up with," he enthuses. "Now I'm very interested and a little nervous to see how other people are going to perceive it, especially since it's so different."

The band are here for an extensive run of the country in April with Aussie metalcore act Polaris, their second ever trip to our shores. Leaving their heavy history well and truly behind them, Tewers tells us that The Plot In You's new sound will be reflected strongly in the setlist they bring to Australia.

"I think we're just going to be doing primarily songs from the new record," he reveals, "maybe one or two from previous records, but we want to keep it fairly cohesive. We don't want to go from playing the super-heavy, almost deathcore shit to big rock songs, we want to just keep it all the same ballpark."

Tewers reveals that the band reached a bit of a turning point in their career a few years back, where they were questioning themselves and whether or not they were going to go on as a band. The change in sound and a change of record label turned things around and gave them a new lease on life. "We were at a weird point, because we'd parted ways with our last label, and we signed to another label and we did one record with them. It did ok, but then it just seemed to fall flat, and I didn't actually know if I wanted to tour anymore.

"And then Fearless [Records] kinda hit us up out of nowhere and it all turned around. Had they not come around I don't know if we would have stayed a band much longer. But they gave us a fresh start."