Despite personal hardships, creative pressures, and their infamous 2020 hiatus, Have Mercy have become living proof of choosing resilience over limitation. The Baltimore four-piece sheds light on silent battles with grief and loss through their emotionally compelling sixth studio album, the loneliest place i’ve ever been.
Brian Swindle (vocals, guitar), Andrew Johnson (guitar), Steve Wootteon (drums) and Nick Woolford (bass) continue to cement their status as a staple in the alternative rock scene with their raw lyricism and undeniable passion. Melodic Magazine sat down with Johnson a few days before the release of the record to discuss the band’s creative process, inspirations behind the record, upcoming tour plans, and two words that have stuck with the band through rough times.
Your sixth studio album, the loneliest place I’ve ever been released on August 29th. Congratulations! How would you compare the process of making this record to your previous releases?
It was kind of the same, but also different at the same time. For the past three records, including this one, we’ve done them ourselves. We record everything at Brian’s and then Steve will usually go into a studio or he’ll come into town because he lives in Ocean City, which is like three hours away from us. The only thing that was different this time around is that we recorded all of it ourselves. Steve recorded everything remotely at his house, sent the drums to us, and then we would essentially record over them. How it usually would work is we’d record to a drum machine essentially, and then send that over to Steve. He’d play some real drums over it, send it back to us and then we’d use that as like a demo essentially.
Can you walk me through the story behind the album’s title and how that came to be?
All of the album titles are aligned from one of the songs. From what I understand, when Brian was writing the lyrics for this album, he came across that as he was sat in his chair and was like, “that’s it, that’s the album title.” That’s what happened and what worked best for us personally.
What does the album title mean to the band?
When I heard the album title, I didn’t think of it as a negative, and I don’t think we really look at it as a negative. The last album was a lot about sobriety, loss, that type of thing, whereas this album is starting with a loss and the whole process of getting over it. It’s not necessarily a themed album, but that is essentially the theme of the album. The first track on the album, “august 17,” all the way through is about dealing with loss in a positive way. When I thought of the loneliest place I’ve ever been, I literally thought about back when I was drinking. I was at the bars all the time with the boys, everybody was around us, all that kind of stuff. When I stopped drinking, I realized, “man, I only have like three friends that really matter.” That’s how I looked at it as a positive. It’s the quality of people over quantity of people.
I really like that because everyone associates loss and grief with negative things sometimes. So, to look at it from a positive perspective and the healing process as a positive is something that I think is really beautiful.
You’ve stated in an Instagram post that the second single “tv glow” is one of the band’s favorite tracks on the record. What is the significance behind this one and why did it become a favorite?
That song is just so fucking fun to play! With the last album as I said a lot of it was like these are songs we wanted to play. We just wanted to write songs to have fun and were fun to play. This album kind of stepped that up because we essentially took what we did on our last album, Numb, and made it better. Not like copied it, but we used the same concepts, especially recording-wise and stuff like that. This time, instead of having Brian mix [the album] or mixing it ourselves, we had our buddy Paul Leavitt, who did the second, third, and fourth Have Mercy records. He 100% put his thing on there.
“tv glows” is just so fun. It’s a throwback to the ‘90s. The music video describes the vibe of that song, basically just driving in your car, blasting a song and just doing the damn thing. I feel like that’s why we all kind of gravitated towards it. I personally wanted that to be the first single, but I’m really glad we were able to get that out at least as the second single because that song is so fun.
It is definitely really fun and I really do like that one! One of my personal favorite tracks on the record is “what happy is.” I would love to hear more about the inspiration behind that one and how the recording process was for that.
So the recording process for most of the songs, including “what happy is,” is we do the skeletons of the song and then we send it off to Steve to put his flavor of drums on it. However, Brian wrote and did 80% of the work on “what happy is.”
With the first album and the second album, we had songs that we essentially wrote in the studio that started off as jams written in the studio. With the self-titled EP, Numb, and this new one, we didn’t really have that chance to jam because we’re recording remotely and doing it at different times. Once we got the drums back [for “what happy is”] we were like, “oh, this is a completely different song and this is gonna be so fun.” We hired a studio musician to do keyboards and stuff on it and it was just fantastic. I feel like that’s what really made “what happy is” what it is. That’s the one song on the album that was like the jam and that we all got to put our different flavors on it.
That’s so awesome! How are you feeling now that it’s about to be released to the world?
I’m really excited for people to hear this record because I feel like with most bands, and most musicians especially, there’s two routes. You put out something, you see what works and you just keep doing what works and kind of flatline or stay in this plateau. You essentially stay in this comfortable place. You don’t really push yourself and I feel like that’s how we would always nudge ourselves, but not necessarily push ourselves. As you listen to the albums, you can see these little nudges of us slightly pushing ourselves. Then with this one, you see us theoretically put ourselves in the car and go off a ramp. We didn’t even jump or anything, this is like leaps and bounds musicianship-wise.
Production- and creative-wise, the loneliest place i’ve ever been is sonically one of our best albums. We’ve created one of the best albums I personally have ever heard because we always wanted to make music that we want to listen to and play. When we’d get the rough mixes back with the other albums, I’d listen to it, give my notes, send it back and I would never listen to it again. With this one, I kept listening to it over and over. I would find myself driving home from work and I would just be like, “let me see what revision three sounds like,” and I would just put it on. Then my car would stop and I’d put my headphones in and walk into the house listening to it. I really feel like I’m excited for people to finally hear and experience something that we are excited about and that I hope they’re excited about.
What was your favorite part of working on this new project?
My favorite part of it was literally just pushing ourselves. We’d be like, “What if you did something like this? What if you did something like that?” It still has those classic Have Mercy things, though. I still do my little blues and ‘60s/’70s-inspired guitar parts because that’s what I grew up listening to, but with this one, I realized this is the only album I don’t use my low E-string on. It’s a very lead-heavy, riff-heavy record. We’d listen to the demos and I’d be like, “okay, I did this cool thing there, but what if I did this cool thing here?” And then Brian was like, “what if you did this cool thing?” And then Nick was like, “can you do something like this?” And I’m like, “no, but give me two days and I’ll figure out how to do it.”
With all the other records, I would always come in with no ideas and write everything in the studio. This time around, I attempted to do that and it was terrible. I literally printed out tab paper and took a week to write out a “woodshed” session where you’re just going out to the woodshed to get, build up your chops and I built up my chops and my riffs. One week, I would work a 10-hour shift at my job at Guitar Center. I’d be writing there and then I would come home and I would write on a little table right there in my room. I’d have my paper out and be like, “oh, that’s cool. Oh, wait, so if he’s doing this, what if I do that?” Going back to record it, it was just so different. At the same time, it was different but it wasn’t foreign. That was my favorite part of it. Coming in unprepared and then coming back over-prepared to the point where we had to cut stuff out.
That is so refreshing to see because people obviously love when bands stay true to their roots and their sound, but to see how excited they get to do new things and to introduce those things, it’s so cool. What is the most important thing that you want people to know about the loneliest place i’ve ever been?
That you’re never truly alone. We have a saying that these two intoxicated ladies told us years ago that has kind of stuck with us. I feel like with the loneliest place i’ve ever been, the best way to experience it is to grab one of your buddies. Grab one or two or four of your buddies, even grab seven if you have a minivan or an SUV! Put this [album] on and drive around.
I live in Baltimore city proper, but we all grew up outside of the city in these little small towns. One of my favorite things to do was to grab my best friend or a couple of friends because I had a minivan — I was the guy with the minivan — and put on a mixed CD. We would blast it and just go cruising. We were all like 16/17 at the time, so we can’t drink, we can’t smoke, we can’t buy lotto tickets, weed isn’t legal yet. You know? So it’s very nostalgic. I feel like that’s why “tv glows” hits so hard for us because it’s very Gin Blossoms-y. That’s what we listened to growing up and a lot of that ‘90s alt rock. I feel like the best way to experience it is how you experienced Third Eye Blind for the first time. Drive in a car with your buds and go cruising.
Speaking of Baltimore, you’re playing a special hometown album release show on September 7th with support from Bad Luck, LATEWAVES, and Gabe Woodrow. What songs from the new record are you most excited to play live? Are there any that you think, or that you hope, will become crowd favorites?
So fun fact, I have this app that I use to learn all of our songs and make our setlists and stuff, that way we can all practice and take out certain things. I have the setlist [for the show] here on my app and the only thing I’m gonna say is that we’re starting off with two new songs. One of them is, I hope, the new crowd favorite — the new “two years” or the new “let’s talk about your hair,” you know, like that type of thing.
It gets everybody excited because we played “august 17” on our last tour and the crowd reaction was really nice. The Emery crowd was really into it and it was really cool. We’re playing a couple of new songs, but we’re not playing all new songs. We are playing some of the crowd favorites. We’re digging out and dusting some older ones off. But I feel like there’s a couple of songs that we’re playing that we hope are, because they’re fun for us to play.
You’ve also got some shows coming up in October opening up for Boys Night Out. How are you feeling about these upcoming dates? I sense some excitement.
Love those boys! I grew up listening to Boys Night Out. My AOL Away messages were Motion City Soundtrack, check! We toured with them. Next, Emery and we just toured with them. Boys Night Out and The Starting Line were the only ones left! Boys Night Out had some lyrics that were just like, man, if you said that in the right inflection to a pretty girl at the mall on a Friday night wearing your Finch t-shirt and your Hollister girl jeans, you’d be smooching.
Me and my brother didn’t really have a lot of music in common. He was into a lot of heavier, R-rated metalcore stuff and I was into the PG-13, Equal Vision Records stuff. I listened to Christian hardcore and metalcore, but I was more into Equal Vision Records. Alexisonfire was my favorite band, you know, that type of thing. But Boys Night Out brought me and my brother so much closer together and I’m just so excited.
We’ve hung out with them a couple of times. When they came through Baltimore, we went and saw them and it was an amazing show. They put on a great show and I’m really excited to be celebrating Trainwreck, a record that defined me as a young man and really made me think that I can play guitar like that. It is so crazy! Sorry, I just heard you say Boys Night Out and I just freaked out.
No I love it! I love the enthusiasm. That makes me so happy. I just saw them when they were on tour with Armor For Sleep and they were fantastic!
That was the tour we saw them on! They’re such awesome dudes. Jet is one of the funniest guys on this planet. We played in Lakewood, Ohio, at a venue down the street from where they were playing on the Armor for Sleep tour. We went down and they were like, “Hey, come hang out!” We hung out on their bandwagon outside of the Roxy and Mahalls, which is one of my favorite venues in Lakewood. That was the night that solidified us as band bros.
It reminded me of the second-to-last night on the Motion City Soundtrack tour where they invited us on their bus. We were like, “This is it. We’ve made it. This is so cool.” Then we did Warped Tour and you would just stumble on somebody’s bus and it’s the same thing like, “Man this is so cool. We made it.” We walked onto Boys Night Out’s bus and I’m just like, “Oh man. We finally made it.” You know? So that was so cool. They’re just the nicest guys. They put on a great show and I’m very excited to be opening up for them. I’m gonna pack up so fast so that I can watch the entire show every night. I’m very excited for that tour.
I’m so excited for you! That’s such a nice full circle moment.
Yeah, thank you! Very exciting!
When people leave a Have Mercy show, what is one thing that you want them to take away from the experience?
That it’s okay to cry in public sometimes. It’s okay to leave it all out there. I feel like our new motto or our new thesis for the band is just leave it all on stage. When you’re in the crowd, leave it all out there. Check all your shit at the door. The second you walk in there, it’s all about having fun. Also, being alone isn’t necessarily a negative thing. At Have Mercy shows, we’ve had people that were like “Hey, I have an extra ticket” and made a friend that way.
I know for me personally, Brian and I are very proud of our sobriety. We want you to know that it’s okay to do these things you used to do with alcohol and drugs, without alcohol and drugs. It’s okay to go to a show and have some fun, but also reminisce about maybe some mistakes made in the past. When you go to a Have Mercy show and when you’re leaving a Have Mercy show, stay rad. That’s what I sign on everybody’s thing is just stay rad, which is kind of my motto. I guess that’s the best I’ve got. Nobody’s ever asked me that question before.
As someone who is such an avid concertgoer and loves all things about live music, that’s something that’s so important to me. Especially with all the bands I see live, I’m always like, “What do they think when they go on stage? What do they want me to take away from this?”
Just how fucking cool I look! I’m just a dweeb with a mustache now. I also want everybody to know that since we don’t drink anymore, there’s nothing for us to do in the green room. So we are always out in the crowd floating around. Never be afraid to come up to us and talk to us, ask us for a picture, ask us for an autograph, ask us to hold your baby. You know, anything like that. We’re all dads and uncles, you know? It’s cool to talk to us, don’t be scared.
I never get starstruck and people are always like that’s my superpower, but my kryptonite to that is that I love pro wrestling so much. If I see a pro wrestler out in the wild, I freeze. I’m just like, “I can’t talk to Ken Dixon. I can’t talk to him!” But if it’s like Keanu Reeves, I’d be like, “oh, excuse me, Mr. Reeves, this is my wife. She would like a picture with you.” Don’t be scared to talk to us!
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today! Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Yes! Going back to the ethos that we had from the two ladies. Back in 2014 or 2015, we were playing a show. I’m not sure if it was a supporting show, but it might’ve been with Major League or Real Friends. I think we were in Michigan and I just wanna say — this is a very Michigan thing. These two intoxicated girls came up to us. We were also a little intoxicated, and I forget how the conversation got here, but it was about being lonely and they said “pizza forever.” And we were like, “what the fuck are you talking about?” And they said, “pizza forever.” I understand that pizza and pop punk go hand in hand, but I don’t necessarily consider us a pop punk band even though we have toured with a lot of pop punk bands. But, pizza was a thing at the time. Pizza, beer, trampolines, laying on the grass in your hoodie, looking at the stars, those were the major tenants of pop punk in the day. Oh, and then defending it.
Can’t forget that.
Yeah, can’t forget that! So they said “pizza forever” twice and we were like, “what is pizza forever?” They said, “Your girlfriend will leave you. Your parents will leave you. Your family will leave you. Your brother and sister might leave you. Everybody in your life will leave you. But the pizza guy is always there. Pizza forever.” We have taken that to heart since then. And just being like, you know, this is the loneliest place I’ve ever been, but pizza forever. So that’s what I want everybody to know. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about this story on a podcast or in the press or anything, but we’ve always had it.
I always do our setlists and I always write something funny on the bottom of it. When we went to the UK, I wrote “Have Mercy believes in Joe Hendry” because he’s a British wrestler and his whole thing is “I believe in Joe Hendry.” I think I had another thing from the band The Police and it was like, “don’t say it so close to me” or something. On the bottom of a couple of our setlists when we first came back I had written “pizza forever” on them. So that’s one of our things. Pizza forever.
the loneliest place I’ve ever been is out now. We have the show in Baltimore on September 7th, which is our first show there in two or three years. We’re all super excited!
