Island RecordsThe band that brought you “The Best Day of My Life” is ready for their next chapter. American Authors‘ new album, Seasons, is out now, and lead singer Zac Barnett says the songs show a new maturity — because he believes that “people wanna hear something real.”
“We’ve really learned, like, ‘Hey let’s just not say a bunch of bulls***, like ‘Oh, here we go/in the jungle/that we roam/pushing for the great unknown/whoah, oh, oh,'” Zac says, mocking his own lyrics.
“At the end of the day, what does that mean? And what does mean in 2019?” Barnett tells ABC Radio. “‘Cause I’m a firm believer that music’s changed a lot in the last five…years…I think people wanna hear something real. And at the same time, we wanna express something real.”
According to Zac, while making Seasons, the group had a rare opportunity for self-examination and had to deal with what their rock-star lives had done to their relationships with friends and loved ones.
“This has been the most time that we’ve had home since American Authors took off,” Zac explains. “So this was really a time for us all to individually reflect on what we’re doing. Now [that] we’re back to being individuals at our homes…what is that life looking like?”
Zac admits some inspiration for the songs came from his tendency to isolate himself from friends and family when he got off the road. Now, though, he realizes he can’t do that anymore.
“People are like, ‘Dude, you’ve been playing video games at your home for the last two weeks! Make an effort to be social and hang out with people!'” Zac says. “And that can be challenging if you’re not super-used to it.”
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