La Dispute are ‘undisputed’ kings of the post-hardcore era, amidst the large wave of bands that came about during the early 2000s. After what has been a painstaking six years since their last release, No One Was Driving The Car emerges in its entirety on September 5 on Epitaph Records as a beacon of light to unite individuals who may often feel like they’re wandering alone in the dark. If you have ever felt unheard, unacknowledged, or anxious about the state of the world, then this album is for you. If one thing is for sure, it’s not easy being human … but it gets easier when we have mediums that unite us.
“I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the sort of general anxiety floating around all of us in our day to day and I think the world post-Covid in particular,” notes vocalist Jordan Dreyer. “I don’t know that it’s gotten so much worse as we might think, but the fact that it has always been bad is coming into clear view. I think I found myself during Covid and in the time since, while we were working on this record, I was thinking a lot about control and what agency we have on the things beyond our control that impact our lives.”
Even the name of the album, No One Was Driving The Car, is a nod to the idea of being powerless or vulnerable. While he was contemplating this concept, Dreyer spent a lot of time figuring out how to be comfortable in the passenger seat. The title and corresponding themes explored within this album are taken from a figurative, as well as a very literal, perspective. The inspiration first emerged to Dreyer after seeing recurring headlines in the news linking self-driving vehicles to a string of fatal car accidents. The idea of having such an automatic belief in the benevolence of technology and relinquishing one’s autonomy so easily really stuck with and gnawed at him.
A secondary, yet just as significant, catalyst towards the creation of this album was through the lens of one of Dreyer’s favorite directors, Paul Schrader, who wrote and directed First Reformed, playing on intertwining themes of religion and climate change. La Dispute has always sprinkled in religious motifs throughout their catalog of music, as it is something that has been a part of many of the band members’ lives since childhood. “There’s a particular offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church that started in Grand Rapids in the 1800s and that’s the church I was raised in, my bandmates Brad and Chad were raised in, and that Paul Schrader was raised in,” explains Dreyer.
Dreyer linked this very striking common denominator between all of their hometowns and religious upbringings, using it to build a foundation for the record and its message to all those who will hear it. Once discovering his connection to Schrader, the film that already had connected with him began taking on a deeper meaning. In tandem, the constant clockwork of time ensures that the film’s premise becomes increasingly relevant on a global scale.
Dreyer offers additional context by saying, “It’s a film about a man in solitude struggling with trauma and he is confronted by a person or circumstance that tests his boundaries and understanding of the world. It’s all sort of cloaked in the specter of climate change and the inevitable catastrophe we find ourselves hurtling towards day by day. I think that anxiety spoke to me a lot, but it was a lot of different things that made it resonate.”
The various themes touched on throughout the record might not appear to be connected but in fact, Dreyer has drawn many parallels that are weaved in and out of songs like “I Shaved My Head,” “Environmental Catastrophe Film,” and the album’s bittersweet closing track “End Times Sermon.” The album was constructed in the same expressive essence as a film, telling a story from beginning to end and incorporating a narrative arc. The parallels that Dreyer touches on all link back to the idea of control; that we cannot let any system assert power over us under the guise of false promises and we must remember the measurable impact we do have control over. This project seeks to not just bring attention to certain ideations but use awareness as a means to bring people closer together without seeking ulterior motives. The only goal being to emphasize the importance of connection and community.
Coming out of the isolation brought on by the 2020 pandemic, La Dispute were feverishly anticipating the opportunity to reunite and remind themselves just how much they love playing music together. The technicalities of this album were difficult because no two members currently live in the same city, in fact some aren’t even in the same country. However, when they were able to get together and worry about nothing other than the enjoyment of the creative process, the songs began coming to life one by one. This album is special for many reasons but one that stands out is the fact that it was self-recorded.
“We recorded and produced it ourselves, so it was a pretty big undertaking but one that we felt confident was the right choice this time around, having the skill sets and experience to pull it off. I think that opened up a lot of avenues for us because we never had to filter what we were attempting to accomplish through any other avenue but ourselves. We lived in the studio for the month that we recorded so we kind of had full reign to try everything and even before going into the process we were pretty committed to keeping all options open and really following our impulses musically, lyrically, and vocally,” describes Dreyer.
The band’s virtue of patience and their unwavering love for creating music ultimately allowed them to discover breakthroughs by letting their intuition led them to try new things. No One Was Driving The Car is a record for the ages and one that deserves to be explored in all its depth.
No One Was Driving the Car is out tomorrow, and you can preorder it from Epitaph Records. Follow La Dispute on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok for future updates.
Photo Credit: Martin
