Interview: Secrets Talk Latest Album

Five full-lengths into their career, post-hardcore band Secrets have offered up some of the more interesting modern aspects of the genre. Huge choruses, a diverse set of influences, crunchy post-hardcore and metalcore riffs are all part of Secrets’ repertoire. Considering they’ve been around for just over a decade at this point, you know the band has weathered the storms of member changes and changing musical climates – yet they’re still able to make it all work efficiently.

The band’s recently-released fifth full-length album, The Collapse, dropped recently – and it is a solid piece of work to be sure. A familiar and comforting sound that’s made for the band’s fans, we chatted with the band recently about their impressive longevity, the new album, and how they’ve managed to maintain their relevance over the years.

Secrets just released their fifth full-length album, The Collapse. What’s the biggest way the record differentiates itself from the band’s previous material?

One thing that makes this record different from the rest is there was never really a time frame to finish it. Every other record we’ve done we had a short window of time to finish, but with “The Collapse” we were able to write more songs and experiment as well as write/record in a few different places to get the material where we wanted it.

Secrets has been a band for just over a decade now. What do you think the biggest difference in the music industry is from when you started, to where the band is now?

Without a doubt the biggest change has been streaming services. Throughout the last ten years we got to experience the shift from having our albums in Best Buy and Hot Topic as well as touring with thousands of CD’s in the trailer to that no longer being necessary, we even went through the small window where bands were putting albums on flash drives, which didn’t last very long at all. Streaming services have made it easier for people to discover new material and we no longer have to transport cases of CD’s everywhere, but the profit on selling an album was awesome back then. 

Streaming is obviously hugely important for any band now. What
changes, if any, would you make to streaming services as a whole?

Higher payouts to artists.

When you’re creating a set list for tour, what factors go into that
process for you? 

There are a bunch of different factors and they continue to change over the years, we obviously need to play the hits for our fans, but if we’re on a support tour we try to go for a set list that will stand out from the rest of the bands. usually if we’re headlining we’ll add some contrast from poppy to heavy, slow to upbeat and with a nice thirty minute support set it has to be nonstop and constant energy. 

What music are you listening to lately?

Recently I’ve been listening to a bunch of movie or video game soundtracks. There’s a band named “Low Roar” that did pretty much all of the music for the game “Death Stranding” and I really love the soundtrack to the movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, which was performed by “Son Lux”

What are some of your favorite cities to visit when you’re on tour, worldwide? 

Any city in Japan, I’ve always loved it there so much and every time I leave I can’t wait to go back, but honestly I’m just happy that I’ve had the opportunity to see so much of the world, It’s still mind blowing to me.

Because of the pandemic, bands and musicians have had time to write more new music, generally speaking. Was that the case for Secrets the last couple years? 

That’s exactly the case for us. When the pandemic hit we were a week or two away from starting a tour and when that fell through we went straight to working on “The Collapse” 

You toured with SKSK and D.R.U.G.S. earlier this year – how did it
feel getting back on the road after a lengthy spell away?

After being home for so long there was a lot of anxiety and doubt about getting back on stage, but that all went away after the first show and all that time off honestly brought a new sense of wonder into my heart, I felt like I was on tour for the first time and seeing new places, even though we had been to all of these cities. It was just so sick and I can’t wait to get back out there

Where do you see Secrets heading over the next couple years?

All around the world and working on more music.

Anything else you want to plug or tell your fans about?

Check out our album “The Collapse” and thanks for all the support. Much love.