Teen Suicide’s long-awaited new album, Nude Descending Staircase Headless, dropped just over a month ago and has quickly made waves across the underground rock, sludge and indie scenes. I recently had the chance to speak with the band about the record, where they opened up about their influences, standout songs, and the creative process behind the album. They’re currently on tour with Liquid Mike and Cloud Nothings, and will stop at El Club in Detroit this Saturday, May 16.

What are some of your musical influences?

For me, they are truly too numerous and diverse to really even count or consider giving a succinct list or breakdown of. I wish I could go into more specifics, but I would never send these answers back if I did, because I’d be revising and refining a list for the next twenty years, probably. I will say, to hopefully avoid giving you a ‘nonsense answer,’ that for me, the music I write is far more influenced by literature and film, art and photography, animation, dreams, memories, etc – than anything I listen to. Books like ‘Let the Boys Play’ by John Nicholas Turner, ‘Ice’ by Anna Kavan, and ‘Blue Lard’ by Vladimir Sorokin have been far more deeply felt for me when writing this record than anything else I’ve come across in recent years. – Sam

Spirits in hotels, traumatic memories, whatever is playing in the background at the thrift store, 10-hour unlabeled playlists with nonsensical titles on YouTube -Kitty

What is your favorite song on the new album and why?

I can’t pick a true favorite, as I could equally make a case for any song in that regard. I will say that ‘Hypnotic Poison’ is the song that I’m most excited about, when I listen to it and remember where the song started, with Kitty writing it for her solo project in 2018, as a moody synth-and-drum-machine driven demo, and where it’s ended up – I feel absolutely electrified by it. I also love ‘Candy/Squeeze’ as it may be my favorite song from the record to play live, and I still can’t believe the melodies Kitty wrote for that otherwise very discordant track. It blows me away still. I also love ‘Come and see the clown,’ and of the songs I wrote for the record, lyrically, that’s my personal favorite. -Sam

My favorite one is Idiot because it kicks ass and goes hard -Kitty

Is there anything in particular that inspired the new album or a certain track off of it?

It’s tough, since so much of what inspired this record (and all of our music, for me) isn’t really tangible – there aren’t direct links from “x, y, z band” to “x, y, z song” so much, beyond the obvious tongue-in-cheek bits. Really, more than anything, I want us to write music that is incredibly hard to describe in relation to other music. The aforementioned books are maybe a better link, if anything – Sam

For me, the overarching theme of the whole album is an amused lament for what our world looks like right now. I don’t know how to elaborate further on that without talking for 5 hours, but maybe it will come through in the music!! -Kitty

Can you describe your creative process?

I honestly really can’t, I’m sorry, there isn’t one definable, simple, easily described creative process to put into words. It’s more fractal-like; tens of thousands of variants, maybe infinite variants, really. Not easily describable at all for me. -Sam

It’s different for every creation, so maybe there is no pattern to it at all. Most often, I feel like ideas just download into me without announcing themselves, but I see them over and over. Like crows!! And then I figure out what method the idea wants me to use to express it, what medium and which senses it wants to be embodied by. If I am able to figure that out, I lock in and drink a LOT of water. -Kitty

Where are you most excited to tour?

I wish we were returning to New Orleans because I had a sandwich there last year that just absolutely blew my freaking mind. Incredible work. Lunch Sandwich Shop. Amazing. Otherwise, I’m incredibly excited to be back at Ottobar finally, where I saw so many of my first shows growing up – and also to play Crowbar before it (supposedly?) closes – an Ybor City staple that I’ll miss dearly if it really is shutting down. -Sam

I can’t wait to go to Indianapolis! I haven’t been there in a decade and am just excited to discover the vibes of a new crowd I haven’t met yet. I’m also SO excited for Detroit because it means I’ll get to hang out with my little sibling who lives in Battle Creek! -Kitty

Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

Don’t make content. Don’t ever view your art as content. If you want to make music to make money or be famous or get clout online, go work for the bank instead, or something. If you feel absolutely compelled to make art at all costs, then do it. You don’t need any money to make music. You don’t need fancy gear. Record your shit at home for free. Listen to everything. Don’t just listen to music that sounds like what you want to make – listen to everything. Listen to everything and find stuff you never thought you’d love. Dissect why you love it, what about it connects with you? How can you bring that into your own music? Let yourself be interested by things you’d never have thought would captivate you – don’t ever get hung up on what bands/artists are “cool”, especially when their work doesn’t connect with you. Just make the music you wish existed. The music which you would fall in love with if you found it yourself as a listener. Don’t worry about if no one else ‘gets it’ – they will or they won’t, but it’s yours, it’s what you want. -Sam

Express yourself fully and completely. Shine light into your shadows and let everyone see the spiderwebs. The spiders will only scare away the people who aren’t ready for you yet -Kitty