The Salton Sea in Southern California is what is known as a terminal or endorheic lake, meaning that it will only continue to get more saline as time goes on because of its inability to rid itself of solutes. As such, the once popular vacation spot has become a rarely visited wasteland. For Matt Pryor, primary vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the legendary emo band The Get Up Kids, The Salton Sea became the perfect metaphor for the life of an artist whose most well-known and celebrated works came out are over two decades old.
“Well, in the fall of 2022 we started doing the 25th anniversary tour of our first Get Up Kids record Four Minute Mile,” recalls Pryor, “and I found myself feeling like the only thing anybody cared about was my past and the things I had done when I was 19. And (I) didn’t feel like I had much value in the present, that all of my best days were behind me. That was the vibe I was getting, which is a wrong-headed way to think about it, but that’s just where I was because depression doesn’t follow reason.”
The metaphor became clear to Pryor after he completed his journey into sobriety, a journey that is reflected in the songs from his seventh solo album, The Salton Sea, out November 14 on Pryor’s own label Nightshoes Syndicate. “I started journaling about what I had been through, especially during the last six months of the dark times, as it were, because I just wanted to keep a record of it before I forgot about it,” he explains. “And then I found that I thought it was an interesting thing to start writing, it inspired me to write new songs. And so I started writing songs, and then it ended up being a record.”
But while The Salton Sea may be a journey through Pryor’s post-detox depression, the artist finds himself hesitant to call the album a concept album, not wanting listeners to go into the record with the kind of expectations that come with the phrase “concept album.” “I’m hoping that you can listen to the record and just like it as a pop record or as a rock record and not necessarily as a think piece,” advises Pryor. “But that’s basically what the songs are, telling the story of that time in my life.”
But if this album is part of Pryor’s journey through sobriety and depression, the inevitable conclusion of that journey, for him, was to release the album on his own label. For that, he launched a Kickstarter to cover the costs of releasing the album. “A lot of the recovery process for me is relearning how to take care of yourself. And part of that for me was I wanted to release the record independently, on my own label, and do as much of the work (as I could).”
The Salton Sea is out tomorrow on Nightshoes Syndicate and you can pre-order it here. Follow Matt Pryor on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for future updates.
Photo courtesy of social media
