The Plot In You | Landon Tewers

In April, The Plot In You will return to Australia for the first time in years to support local metalcore heroes, Polaris. Before April and that tour rolls around, however, the group will unveil their powerful new record, 'Dispose'; a release that's a step up for Plot's sound in every single account! Speaking with me over the phone last week, frontman Landon Tewers honestly expressed his love and excitement for the band's new album and how he feels it's their best work yet, one that's more or less a "rebirth" for the band. He and I also took the time to quickly talk about his hatred for making music videos, how he feels their older material of 'Wife Beater' and 'First Born' has aged since release, and I enlighten him on that Plot reference from Alpha Wolf's record, 'Mono'.

So what have you been up to today, Landon?

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We’re actually out in LA today, doing some music video stuff. Been away from home for about two days now, it’s been good.

Cool! So getting ready for another single to drop are you?

Yeah, we’re actually doing two – ‘I Always Wanted To Leave’ and ‘Disposable Fix’. Did one yesterday, and am doing one tomorrow. Just doing them back-to-back and smashing them out so we don’t have to come back to LA again. We’ve been down here at least four or five times this year already, so we try to clump things in when we’re here.

Of course, saves time. So, as per the topic, how do you handle the process of music videos?

Oh, we hate it, we all hate it, man. There’s absolutely nothing fun about it [laughs].

[Laughs] but surely you do enjoy the final product though, no?

Well yeah, for the most part… actually no, not for the most part, when we’d get our older videos back we’d think “Why did we even bother?”. Ever since our drummer Mathis started doing them, they’ve been good. It feels worth it all now.

Well, the ‘Not just Breathing’ film clip was really well composed, shot and edited so he’s doing something right!

Yeah, it’s what he pretty much does for a living now, He’s going to do really well in his career, for sure.

Oh, right, that’s sick! But anyway, onto the new record, ‘Dispose’. With all of the varying projects and different music that you’ve made and do make, whilst writing and creating this new record, did you ever suffer from option paralysis in what you could do it?

No, not with this new one particularly, but I have had that many times in the past. This one came together very organically, and it didn’t even feel like work putting it all together. I had like a good year to write it and would write two songs a month and take a month off here and there; I could just do it at my leisure. So by the time we went to actually record it, we had about twenty songs, and we just chose the best nice songs. This was the smoothest record we’ve done, no dry spells for our creativity.

Do you think that makes a better record overall, that smoother creation process?

Yeah, absolutely! We picked the songs that all went together the absolute best of the whole lot. We wanted to make the cohesive record we’ve ever done. As with our old records, the sounds throughout are pretty scattered, there wasn’t that much flow and there was also some filler in those albums too. With this new one, we had songs that we 100% wanted to go onto the record.

I’d agree that this is a more cohesive release too. Personally, I found that the first song, ‘Rigged’ and the last track, ‘Disposable Fix’ to be the best songs, mainly because they’re so different to what The Plot in You normally is.

Oh thank you man, I appreciate that, they’re my favourites too!

No worries! I also wanted to ask about the front cover of the artwork – the Statue of Liberty imagery with the title. ‘Dispose’. I take it that that means disposing of something that prohibits one’s own freedom and creativity to flourish…?

Yep, absolutely! You literally nailed it on the head with that one, that’s exactly the message we’re trying to get across – just freedom through cutting ties with things that aren’t letting you grow in life.

Does that also cross over into the business side of the band, or is strictly personal with you and your life?

It’s a little bit of both. ‘Rigged’ is about the struggles we’ve had in the music industry and everything like that, but that’s the only song that strays away from the other concepts of the record, which are more relationship based. And we touch on different types of relationships; just any kind that is holding you back.

Right, but I take it that a key idea of those relationships is songs like ‘Not Just Breathing’ and ‘Feel Nothing’, dealing with those of a romantic nature?

Oh, definitely!

So with those kinds of songs, has that ex-partner heard these songs? Do they have an opinion on those tracks?

Ah… yeah. What’s kind of funny is that I was still somewhat with the person when I was writing a lot of those songs. She heard them when they were demos, but she didn’t have much of an opinion about them. Then, when everything came out, she was like “Wow, I didn’t really realise that while you were home you were writing all of these things about us.” She and I are cool now, but she was definitely taken back by it at first.

Oh shit! Cause normally, these songs come about out after the relationship is over, so it’s interesting they came to life during it all…

[Laughs] Yeah. Well, I think at first, she was mad but now everything’s cool. But we're all chill now.

Good to hear! Just when listening to The Plot In You’s music before this interview, I basically forgot that at one point in time, you guys were a much heavier metalcore band. How do you feel that the older ‘Wife Beater’ EP and the ‘First Born’ material has aged since its release and how do you view those releases nowadays now that you’ve evolved?

Especially the first EP, we can listen back and get some comedic value out of it all. There’s nothing there we’re very proud of. With ‘First Born’… there are a couple songs there that are all right with lyrical content, but musically, it hasn’t aged well. It was just us following metalcore trends at the times, and we were still in the baby days of finding our sound. We’ve been trying to get that shit off the Internet for a long time.

I don’t think it was until the second and third records that we really found what road we wanted to go down sound-wise. This is our first record that actually captives everything that we’ve wanted to do. This is almost like a rebirth of the band; finally doing something we’re 100% all into. I think we’ve definitely found our spot. It did take a while but we got there, for sure.

I’d agree with you, Landon. I find it funny how you view your old art as many friends I have who loved and hated that time in metalcore music, they still really enjoy the old Plot sound. Still had an impact with people either way. Also, in terms of that rebirth and history, I don’t suppose you’ve checked out the new Asking Alexandria record? Because I think much like Bring Me The Horizon or AA, Plot has had a very similar trajectory.

I haven’t heard that new record yet. I need to check that one out actually. But I’d agree, especially with Bring Me. That’s the one band in our scene that I’ve really kept up within our scene, I think they’re very innovative as they’ve carried over the best parts of their old sound to their new one and improve on it. Which is what we’re trying to do too; find our own little niche and make it better and better with every release after that.

Yeah, just ensuring you don’t paint yourself and the band too much into a corner.

That’s exactly right man!

Before we go Landon, and with that Polaris tour in April, the band below you guys on the tour’s bill - Alpha Wolf – they actually lyrically reference Plot in their song, ‘Devon St’. Did you know that at all?

Whoa, really? That’s sick! I didn’t know that. I need to check that out. What’s the release called?

The record’s called ‘Mono’ and the lyric is on the album’s final song, ‘Devon St’. It goes: “the only thing stopping my dangling feet is having ‘Take Me Away’ by Plot on repeat”.

Oh man, that’s so awesome. Once we get off the phone, I’m so going to check that out!

Fuck yeah! And on that note, we’ll leave it there, mate. Thank you so much for your time, Landon, I wish you all the best for the new album and the Australian tour.

No worries at all Alex, I really appreciate it. Thank you.