Q: Hey Karly, rad new album! I live in a small appalachian town called athens, oh near west virginia and the lyrics you wrote fit so well with raw appalachian culture. But in a cool punk way. I love to see a historically looked down upon region be celebrated in the way y'all do.

As a fellow song-writer I wanted to know how you evolved to writing music you liked? I think it can be so easy to write a song. But for me it seems it is all about whether I would actually listen to one of my songs itself that determines if it is a good song. How did you get there in your songwriting? To actually enjoy what you wrote and not be embarrassed to play it? Is it something that came from playing with your bandmates more? Do you find yourself wanting to listen to your songs?

Y'all should come out to our pawpaw festival one year it's so appalachiancore and beautiful. Thanks for creating cool shit!

A: YOOOOO! We played the university in Athens, OH (for lobster fest) in 2023 riiiiight after Rat Saw God came out and it was fucking awesome.

As far as your question… I put out multiple albums worth of music before I started writing music I actually liked!! For me it was purely just a practice and time thing, although I know that’s a boring answer. It definitely helps to have bandmates that challenge you to write shit that meets their and your personal tastes. It’s 1000000 times more fun to play music you really love. Rat Saw God was the first time I fully felt like I did an albums worth of songs I loved, but on TP and IWTTDYTS there were a few songs that I really felt like I tapped into something… and they guided me to write more in that vein. (Fate Is…, Billboard, How Can You Live, Toothache, Twin Plagues, Handsome Man, November) Those were songs that I truly identified with really informed the next albums and we still play a lot of those old songs for that reason.

I love listening to our songs when we get the first mixes back… but once the music is out I almost completely stop listening to them so I can move on to the next thing I’m writing,

PS I add tags at the bottom of these questions for songwriting so if you want more advice in that vein just click on those <3