Phoenix emo band Commoner have released their debut album Former Self via Pure Noise Records. Split Chain feature on the opening track and new single ‘Cobalt Blue’, which comes with a music video!
For Commoner, ‘Cobalt Blue’ is about one particular fear that comes with growing up. In the band’s words, it’s “the fear of failing the people you want to show up for most”. They wanted to open the record with a song that listeners could come back to at different ages and still find something of themselves in.
Commoner made the ten-track album with longtime collaborator Zach Tuch. Some songs look back at who the band members were as kids, while others deal with how it feels to miss an earlier version of someone who’s still in your life. As bassist Matthew Bryant puts it, the record is also about “missing somebody else’s former self”.
Commoner are on the road with ASkySoBlack and 0 Miles Per Hour. They play Gilman in Berkeley on 13 November and Voodoo Brewery in Las Vegas on 14 November before finishing their run back in Arizona at Bee Vinyl Cafe in Cottonwood on 16 November.