Photo by Ebru Yildiz 

Activity very much sounds like a band meant to exist during these times. Guitarist and vocalist Travis Johnson — formerly of the beloved cult Brooklyn punk outfit Grooms — alongside fellow members of the scene’s underground in guitarist and vocalist Jess Rees of Russian Baths, bassist Bri DiGioia, and freshly-minted drum kit presider Brian Alvarez of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Peel Dream Magazine tap into the bleaker matter of the now (and near-future) marred by a heavy sense of anxiety in everything. What feels like some kind of nightmare timeline manifests through their third full-length effort, A Thousand Years In Another Way, in its sonic syncing of cavernous art-rock, a post-mortem of post-punk, and alternative dimension of shoegaze shaped through a eerie, experimental electronic slant. While the album delves deep into a dark conscious of humanity oft hidden in plain sight, it also discovers portals to escape it all, even if it means escaping this world altogether.

+rcmndedlisten connected with Travis Johnson over e-mail where talked about the premise of pure evil, the band’s evolution and organic chemistry, and releasing a spooky season-centric album during the dead heat of summertime.

+rl: You began Activity during one of the strangest states of existence — 2020 — and with the release of your debut album, Unmask Whoever. We’re still navigating that bizarre reality, with a growing sense of disconnect becoming increasingly normalized. Yet on A Thousand Years In Another Way, there’s a force opening the door to a possible inverse, where love coexists with darkness. Why do you think we, as a culture, are more naturally drawn to the evil in it all than to that which is not?

Travis Johnson: Evil is fascinating, and scary. And real! I can’t speak for others but I guess that’s why I’m drawn to thinking about it. Right now, it just seems so oppressively present and powerful, with these very frightening people in control, that whenever I sat down to write lyrics, that’s just what came out. It wasn’t an intentional concept or anything. I try to focus on kindness, too, so all the ruminating on evil stuff is done from what I hope is a kind version of me. Not just feeling freaked out or angry about how bad things are, though of course that, too.

+rl: Nevertheless, A Thousand Years In Another Way possesses a magnetic pull, inviting a brooding chemistry throughout its soundscape. I’d argue it places the band more firmly than ever into an ambiguously defined experimental rock gravitas — where the likeness of guitars, electronic loops, spliced samples, and synthesizers bleed indistinguishably into one another. From a sonic perspective, how have you conceptualized this evolution in the band’s sound over just five years?

TJ: There are very silly and pretentious ways I think of or visualize the goal in my head that I’d be kind of embarrassed to go into. I think we just wanted everything to keep getting blurrier. Not in a shoegaze way where it’s tons of guitars, but where sounds don’t have seem to have normal origins I guess. Obviously, there’s still stuff that’s obviously what it is — a guitar, drums, drum machine, voice, etc. But we wanted it to sound like it was all made and recorded in a place where the walls and floors were alive or something ridiculous like that. Something like that has always been in the back of our heads since we started.

+rl: There’s a kind of irony in the fact that this album feels like your most cohesive and collaborative direction to date, despite its shifting energy. It’s pieced together through fragmented compositions and shared songwriting contributions from you, guitarist Jess Rees, and bassist Bri DiGioia. You also welcomed drummer Brian Alvarez (of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Peel Dream Magazine) into the fold following the recording. What would you say are the atoms that hold this molecule together when constants are out of the equation?

TJ: I really don’t know at this point, except that we like each other and like the music we make. I guess it’s that simple. It’s been really cool getting to know Brian since we started playing with him, and he’s an excellent drummer. And when we start working on new stuff, there’s this sense of excitement at what it can be. 

+rl: You’ve got a fall tour coming up this October, just in time for spooky season — when A Thousand Years In Another Way seems poised to peak in mood-setting. Was there a seasonal intentionality behind releasing the album at the start of summer, allowing it to bloom early, melt into the sun during its hottest months, and reach its natural decay come autumn? If not, it feels like an accidental masterpiece of sensory alignment…

TJ: I hope it works out that way! I think ideally it would’ve been released in October or something, and I was kind of worried that putting something like this out in June would be all wrong. So yeah, I hope people listen to it still in the fall. It’s definitely got that feel to it. 

Fall Tour Dates:

Activity’s A Thousand Years In Another Way is available now on Western Vinyl.