Set It Off's Cody Carson Promises The Band WILL Make It To Aus This Time Around

American symphonic pop-rock outfit Set It Off are set to release their new album, simply titled Midnight, in early February. A theme that comes through strongly when discussing the album, and the band’s output overall, with affable frontman Cody Carson, is their need to have a very broad appeal, both in terms of their music overall and their lyrical content. A decade and four albums into their career, this band knows exactly what it's doing: making a lot of people happy.

“For the existing fans, from all the albums that have come before, they’re going to get something, get at least a song or two that they love,” Carson says. “There’s a great variety here: it’s like we’ve taken all the things that we love from our previous records and all the things that we know the fans love from talking to them, and we’ve put it all into one album.

“It was actually a really difficult process to narrow it all down, and that’s how we’ve ended up with 15 tracks – we wanted all of that on there. And at the end of the day, we’re really proud of what we’ve done.”

So what does an uninitiated lister, a potential fan here in Australia, get from their sound? “Something else I’m really proud of is our melodies,” Carson says. “I’m proud of the construction of the melodic sense of the songs. They’re catchy but they’re also meaningful.”

Carson feels Set It Off's lyrical content is also very resonant and relevant to a broad range of music-loving punters. “We all have those days when we feel on top of the world, and we all have days when we feel we’ve been hit by a bus,” he laughs. “It’s so important to have a song for people for both of those moments. I think we do the job of giving people that. So if you’ve never heard us before: have a listen to our songs, and pay attention to the lyrics, I think you’ll find you connect with it.”

“We all have those days when we feel on top of the world, and we all have days when we feel we’ve been hit by a bus."

As far as the lyrical direction of the new album is concerns, and the themes it tackles, Carson feels that while initially the ideas come from very disparate directions and viewpoints, the finished product features a strong and relatable message. 

“It’s interesting, we usually go in a song at a time,” he explains. “We don’t know what we’re going to write about that day, maybe it’s a topic that’s been eating at me. But a theme really starts to take shape when we step back and look at it overall. It’s like, ‘Wow, there is kind of a theme going here and we didn’t even know it.’

“There is a theme there of maybe when you’re thinking about people that you trust, but you realise later that maybe you were a little too trusting. There’s a song about sharpening your survival instinct more so no one can hurt you. There’s a song about feeling down about things like that and realising it’s ok to feel that sad, and then being able to lift yourself up. There’s also a lot of references to time, and the changing of eras and so on.”

Set It Off hit the road virtually straight after the album drops, with dates across North America and Europe taking up the first few months of 2019. That said, Carson is confident that the band will make it to Australia on this album cycle for what would be, a little surprisingly, their first-ever tour Down Under.

“We’re doing everything we can, we’re harassing the media and overseas agents, it’s a huge priority for us to get out there,” he says. “Everyone we’ve ever met from Australia has become an awesome friend of ours, so we’re super keen to get over there and meet everybody.

“I can hardly believe we’ve never been out there in ten years, but we’re going to get there this time.”