Live at Electric Bristol: The Menzingers

Everything I Ever Saw captures the quartet embracing the here and now while strengthening the bonds

that have held them together.

Work on Everything I Ever Saw started in earnest after touring behind 2023’s Some Of It Was True, as the

group felt a re-energized urgency while their worlds changed around them. “It wasn't something that we

initially set out to do,” vocalist/guitarist Greg Barnett says. “We started writing immediately after our last

record in a very fun, casual way—but we were going through really special moments that we wanted to

document.” “We've been doing this for so long that it’s routine,” vocalist/guitarist Tom May adds.

“Between this record and the last record, however, so much happened in our lives, and we always write

about what's going on.”

Indeed, the last three years have been plenty busy in the Menzingers’ world: while Barnett got married

and welcomed his first child, May got divorced and navigated new emotional territory both in and

outside of the band. “We're no strangers to writing about breakups, but divorce is different,” he says.

“There's a weirdness to it that cuts so much deeper and hurts much more. The most devastating part is

that you had a vision for your life that's gone now, and you have to figure out how to navigate that while

growing as a person. But through that suffering, I definitely became a better person than I was before.

When you're broken, you can put yourself back together in a way where you are who you truly want to

become.”

“It was sad for him, but he became the person that he always wanted to be, and he found so much

happiness in this way his life changed,” Barnett adds. “I'll always look back on this record as living in the

moment of these massive changes in our lives.” While working on the record in the band’s new studio

space in the Port Richmond area of Philadelphia, the quartet—rounded out by bassist Eric Keen and

drummer Joe Godino—engaged in some group camaraderie (and, yes, a couple of frosty beverages) to

help their bandmate and lifelong friend navigate this particular era of growing pains in his personal life.

“Those guys took care of me,” May says, “and I can't even put it into words how powerful that was. It

solidified our creative relationship, because they’re some of the few people that I can talk about these

things with.”

It’s that sense of coming together that inspired Barnett’s lyrics on the charging “Nobody's Heroes,” which

opens with the glowing tick-tock of a drum machine before launching into the type of passionate burn

the Menzingers have long been known for. “It feels like the story of the Menzingers to me,” he says while

talking about the song. “I wanted to write about my experiences of trying to be there for him through

everything he was going through. Then, the approach became the whole band rallying around each

other, and an anthem for everything that we've been through, while shining a light on the connection

that we have together.”

The Menzingers have always created as a four-headed unit, with all members throwing in their

respective talents as part of the craft—but for Everything I Ever Saw, the group worked in creative

symbiosis more than ever before. “The way we made this record feels the most like how the band was in

the very beginning: Me and Tom coming to the band with the most basic element of a song, and the four

of us shaping that,” Barnett says. “We had these really bare skeletons, and we'd all get excited and

envision what the song could be.” “We’d huddle in a circle and try to inspire each other,” May adds.

“Everybody's listening to different music and bringing those influences over. We were trying to build

songs that got us excited from an instrumentation point of view.”

Instrumental in building that excitement was locally centered and nationally renowned production

legend Will Yip, who threw in with the Menzingers on 2017’s After the Party and their sonically expansive

2019 record Hello Exile. This time around, Yip once again became an unofficial Menzinger while the band

crafted these 11 songs in their South Philly space. “Working with Will was like a homecoming,” May

beams while talking about Yip’s contributions. “We've grown up together over these years, and we're still

incredibly close friends. He’s the best at gassing you up and making sure everybody's on the right page,

but he's also so good at pointing out stuff that might not fit the vision without being a fucking prick. He’s

the hardest working person that we've come across in the music industry, and he's incredibly inspiring.”

His input played a crucial role in constructing the thick riffs of opening track “Chance Encounters,” which

charges forward like a thousand rhinos from the very first second. “We couldn't figure out exactly where

it lived, and when we got into the studio, Will was like, ‘Just rock it,’” May remembers. “It ended up being

one of the heaviest songs that we’ve put out in a long time.” Lyrically Barnett draws from the chance

encounters he’s experienced in his own life amidst Truman Show namechecks: “I met my wife when I was

15. We were in line for a show in Wilkes-Barre, and now we have a child together. It's those chance

moments that set your life on such an insane course.”

Then there’s the infectious pop-punk gait of “Better Angels,” its title taken from Abraham Lincoln’s First

Inaugural Address and its lyrical content set squarely on the various calamities occurring in the world,

with an urgent message to better understand those around us. “Heaven's not coming for us,” May says

while talking about the song’s lyrical bent. “You have to create it on earth. The world feels unstable,

there's noise everywhere, and we live in a world that's teetering on post-truth. The song is about trying

to stay human when the worst parts of humanity are showing its face. This oligarchical, blatantly corrupt,

and self-serving administration is costing people their lives and livelihoods, and there's a division that

exists. If we're going to get through all this, we have to bring people in and see the humanity in someone

else. Appealing to the part of yourself—that’s the better angel.”

And tending to those around you while drawing from the well of experience that lies within is a central

theme that brought about Everything I Ever Saw. “This record is a turning point for us,” May reflects.

“We’re starting to utilize and accept the wisdom that we've gained from all these years. We're extremely

conscious of what we want to do now.” “This has been a huge portion of my life, and everybody has

dedicated so much to this band,” Barnett adds, before reflecting on his grandmother’s recent passing,

and how watching family videos after her death drove home the importance of capturing the truly

transformative moments in one’s life.

“I want to be able to appreciate, understand, and love everything that we've done, as well as where

we’re going,” he says. “It's going to define who we are for the rest of our lives.” Suitably, Everything I Ever

Saw is the work of a band that’s never taken their foot off the gas finding a new fount of energy in their

collective growth—the latest full-throated work from a band that keeps creating memories to last an

entire lifetime and then some.