Los Angeles rockers New Language recently released new single “Paranoid” (not the Sabbath tune), and there’s a new album on the way. We chatted about all that and more…

L.A. WEEKLY: The new single is “Paranoid” — what is the song about?

MATT COHEN: The collection of music that we’ve been releasing over the last yeast or so, we wrote these songs in 2018, 2019, and now in 2020 they’re seeing the light of day. The theme of “Paranoid” initially started around gun violence here in the U.S. and around the world — that feeling of paranoia and not being able to walk into a farmer’s market, grocery store or school. It was just terrible at the time. Obviously, since then there have been other issues come to the surface, but the song initially started centered around gun violence. Then as we were coming up with the lyrics, we started asking our friends, fans and family what makes them paranoid. We found that the answers were all over the place. Everyone had this feeling of paranoia, but some people were more inward thinking like, “Is it me losing control of my surroundings?” So the first line in the song is “Lost control.” Another person was paranoid about not meeting expectations. Everyone is so on edge — the guy next to me is paranoid and therefore I’m paranoid. We write a lot about empathizing and understanding where people are coming from. So the theme of the song evolved from gun violence to general paranoia. 

There’s an album due out soon, right?

Yeah, so we’ve been trickling out songs and we will be releasing an album by the end of the year. I’m telling myself that, for sure. It is finished. We released the first single from it March 13, the day Trump announced quarantine. We started our cycle immediately during quarantine. We had touring plans and everything but whatever, we decided to move forward with it. We decided to split the album up into parts. In April we released part one with a few songs. More tunes to be released in the near future.

Did the lockdown change the way you rolled music out?

For sure. Right away, we all sat down, looked at each other and said “Let’s move forward. We have this music, we have plans for it, let;s not sit on it.” I know a lot of people earlier on were pushing releases and waiting to see how the year panned out. We made the quick decision to stick to the plan. We also did have an initial plan of not showing all of our cards with one album drop. With no touring right now, consistency is key. Stay involved, stay communicating with the fans, and we definitely adjusted. More video content due to lack of live opportunities. 

How would you describe the sound, and how has it evolved since forming?

It’s a rock band at the foundation. We like to create a sound that a hard rock enthusiast would get into, but then also we do include other indie and classic rock elements. Guitar solos and jam sessions. We like to think there’s a little bit of something for everybody but it’s definitely high energy, thought provoking and designed to be consumed lyrically and musically for a lot of people. 

What else do you have planned for 2020?

We’ve been hanging on to a couple of songs that we’re really excited to release. One is the title track of the album — we’re gonna be announcing that in the next month or so. So a handful of new music and online experiences to stay engaged and interacting with everybody. We hope to be playing in the near future as everyone does, but in the meantime we’ll keep creating. Putting out new music. I’ve written about nine songs since being in quarantine, so the idea is to keep the wheels spinning and moving forward. Making lemonade with the new dynamics and world we’re living in right now.

New Language’s single “Paranoid” is out now, as is the follow-up “the pain [i can’t explain].”

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