The Academic on Their New Releases, Growing Up Together, and Living Out Their Dreams

[UNPUBLISHED:] I want to start off by giving you a major congratulations on your single “Don’t Take It Personally.” The lyrics discuss a deep need to be strong-willed, with this demand emphasized further through the punch of drums and the strong guitar line throughout. What was the process like creating this song for you?

[THE ACADEMIC:] Thank you! That’s a really fascinating interpretation of the track. The process was all about falling in love with live music all over again. Unfortunately, we were starved of a live environment for most of the last few years. This led to an unbearable excitement when we could finally jam together again! DTIP was a result of one of these overly energetic jams! We were just following our musical instincts and letting all sorts of lyrics flow, like a stream of consciousness. When we finished jamming, we couldn’t believe what we had just come up with!

[UNPUBLISHED:] The music video for “Don’t Take It Personally” was a one take live performance shot from a festival, which really captures such a fun energy for you all as a band. What festival were you at, and what was that show like for you?

[THE ACADEMIC:] That was at the Independence festival in County Cork, Ireland! That show was a dream. When an Irish crowd goes for it, they really go for it! We’ve always thought that our music thrived at festivals, and festivals in our home country are hard to beat.

[UNPUBLISHED:]  “Don’t Take It Personally” is your first release since last summer’s energetic Community Spirit EP. Do you think your music has changed as you enter a new era for The Academic with “Don’t Take It Personally”? 

[THE ACADEMIC:] Without a doubt! We’ve matured and grown as people and songwriters over the last year. New experiences shape our world views and what we write about. We’ve also taken a step back from producer roles in the studio. We’re over the moon to be collaborating with producers outside of the immediate band members, which is always a rewarding experience! This has been a huge weight off our shoulders and allowed us to concentrate purely on songwriting.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Do you think the way you create music is impacted by how long you’ve all been friends?

[THE ACADEMIC:] Definitely! We haven’t just grown up together. We’ve all learned our crafts together too. We know how to throw all of our influences together when we’re creating music. That process makes up the very DNA of The Academic. It’s what makes us who we are.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What inspires the music you create?

[THE ACADEMIC:] Our lived experiences! Every song The Academic has ever released is soaked in truth, and we’re very proud of that. It can never be anything insincere. We wear our hearts on our sleeves and the results are genuine, and unapologetically true.

[UNPUBLISHED:] Just for a bit of fun, if you had to assign your music a color, what would it be and why?

[THE ACADEMIC:] The theme for our new album is blue, and that feels about right! We’ve had poppier, more youthful colors in our work before this (if that makes sense), but a deep, relaxing blue feels good at the moment.

[UNPUBLISHED:] As you’ve grown throughout your time as friends and as a band, is there any advice you wish you had been given when you were first starting out as The Academic?

[THE ACADEMIC:] That’s a great question! I feel really comfortable saying that we don’t have any regrets as a band. When we look back at our journey so far, we feel like we’ve always trusted our gut, which is essential. “Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else’s dreams?” I always tend to come back to that one quote.

The Academic recently released the music video to their newest single “Pushing Up Daisies” out on Spotify and YouTube now!