Credit: Shervin Lainez Highly Suspect‘s current single “These Days” has reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Songs, following in the footsteps of its predecessor, “16.”
“16” eventually reached the number-one spot on the ranking, and became the first track without any guitars to achieve that feat. While “These Days” is much more of a grungier, guitar-driven tune, both tracks adhere to the Highly Suspect mantra on songwriting.
“You make what’s correct for the song,” frontman Johnny Stevens tells ABC Audio of his band’s approach to making music.
“There is no right or wrong, there are no rules,” he adds. “[We do] whatever’s best for the song.”
As Stevens explains, “16” doesn’t feature any guitars because “it did not need a guitar.”
“It’s as simple as that,” Stevens says. “If a song needs a guitar, then we’re gonna put a guitar in it. If it doesn’t need a guitar, then why would we put a guitar in it?”
“What’s the point, just to ‘make it sound rock’?” he asks. “There’s no point. The song sounds super good the way it is.”
“These Days,” meanwhile, needed that guitar crunch to work.
“That’s a song that would not have sounded good if we tried to do it with the same production as ’16,'” Stevens says. “That song is what it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a grungy rocker.”
Both “16” and “These Days” are featured on Highly Suspect’s new album MCID, which dropped last November.
By Josh Johnson
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