16 November 2019
Newsdesk
The alt rockers latest record 'Surviving' - which addresses frontman Jim Adkins' decision to ditch alcohol seven years ago - has been described by the band as their most personal to date, but the 43-year-old musician didn't find it difficult to bare his soul in the songs.
He told Music Feeds: "It wasn't harder. I feel like it was kind of easy. It was easy because I discovered that when you do confront these things, it gives you momentum to confront other things and retrain the way of thinking so that you kind of look forward to discovery.
"That's all that song writing is. Digging around the discovery process."
The group's 10th album focuses on a theme of "acceptance the craziness" of finding it "too scary" to confront your problems.
Jim explained: "The simple fear of the unknown is enough to keep you away from doing something that might get you away from the negative feelings. It's just fascinating to me because it's really hard.
"I guess when I quit drinking, that's what illustrated it clearly to me. When you're on the other side of that and looking up at it, it's just really difficult. It doesn't matter what anyone tells you.
"It could be drinking or addiction or any sort of difficult decision, people tell you whatever about how it's not that hard and no big deal. You just can't let it go."
For their latest collection, 'The Middle' band - completed by Zach Lind, Tom Linton and Rick Burch - were particularly inspired by an idea from writer William Faulkner.
Jim said: "There's a creative metaphor that William Faulkner wrote, the idea of 'kill your darlings' where you're trying so hard to make things work when really, it's that exact thing that you should get rid of."
