Utah-based indie rockers Krooked Kings released their latest album, “In Another Life,” last month via SoundOn. As the album has unfolded first into the ears, then into the hearts of listeners, they’ve found that one thing is true: there is an empathetic quality to this album. The group of five, Oli Martin (vocals, guitar), Paul Colgan (guitar), Dave Macey (keys), Matt Monosson (bass), and Quinn Casper (drums), has dug deep for these lyrical stories as a way of bringing the hidden inside to the outside world. Once that inner work is done, it tends to evolve into thinking about what life would look like with different choices. “A lot of the themes that run through the album are ones of examining what life would’ve been like if you had gone down a different path. I think about the song “Parking Lot,” which is about seeing someone in a bar and imagining a different life with them, and a lot of it is like those flights of fancy and those “what ifs” that pop into your head all the time,” Paul Colgan tells IINAG.
Krooked Kings have been able to build a feeling of closeness to humanity, understanding that we’re all on different paths and one choice could make all the difference. “I think it is a natural human instinct to kind of wonder what life would be like if you had made different choices.” Paul continues highlighting the album’s title, “In Another Life,” touching on all of the anxiety and discovery that comes with imagining all of our different pathways.
The new album’s arrival wasn’t always easy. “I feel like we as a band have gone through like years with highs and lows. We came into this album wanting to create something that had more meaning and more depth,” Ollie Martin shares with us. “Once you’ve made that kind of intention in creativity, that is where the hard work really starts. And when we open ourselves up to depth, we also open ourselves up to the rest of the world. This album doesn’t hide from the difficult realities. It explores not only the forks in the road that change our lives entirely, but all that comes with it: drugs, sex, and hard realizations.” “I feel like a lot of it is based on our own lives. That vulnerability is something that the listener can hear and relate to. We still feel like average people, and we take that into our songwriting. It is stuff we do day to day,” Matt Monosson reveals. “We live in Utah, and we’re all just living normal lives, so it is really easy to write this vulnerable music because we do have these struggles that we go through every day. Writing songs is a form of therapy for us in a way, and that shows up in our songs.” The gritty vulnerability that has made a home in this new album “In Another Life” arrived through a vein of true growth.
