Charming Liars talk their debut record, touring, and their love for music -EXCLUSIVE

Finding a band who truly cares about music more than fame or money is hard in today’s world. For the most part, being in the limelight, collecting the paychecks, and being the mainstream act is what’s more important to musicians today. However, when you look at the Charming Liars, things seem more anthemic and caring.

The Charming Liars are an alternative band thriving out of Los Angeles, California. They’ve been on a run of a lifetime, releasing their debut album, Thought, Flesh and Bone in March of 2019, and following up with two-major tours including The Faim, The New Regime, and Angels and Airwaves.

All Punked Up had the pleasure of talking to lead vocalist Kiliyan Maguire about the hot year they’ve had in 2019, recording their debut record and touring with big names.

“We spent quite some time recording the record,” says Kiliyan. “During that process there was a lot of inward discoveries and things like that. You’re always wondering if the music is going to translate.”

In time, the songs translated, generating a large audience through their anthemic music. “You get those thoughts every now and then but when you get to release it, you get to do these really incredible tours and it really is this incredible pay off.”

Once they released Thought, Flesh and Bone, opportunities started to be thrown at them. As soon as they knew it, they went from small venues to large crowds.

“We’ve had our fair share of grueling tours where you play to just a few people and now we play in front of these massive crowds and incredible people. It’s really been amazing,” says Kiliyan.

Despite the success of their album, things weren’t always so easy. To The Charming Liars, when it comes to writing a record, you need to take risks and hope in the end that your music reaches your audience more than you had hoped.

“There were definitely some songs where we took a few different risks,” says Kiliyan. “For example, our song Insomnia. It’s a little different than anything we’ve done before or heard before. There was definitely that uneasiness there but it was kind of exciting, you know? It was more of the fact that it was weird, but it’s one of our most received songs when played live.”

As a band, you can be very insecure about the potential of a song. Not knowing how well it can be received after the effort you put into it can be a scary thing for many bands to do, especially with your debut album.

“It’s interesting because you can write a record and your expectation of it is sometimes far exceeded by the reality because sometimes people take these songs and make a new life of them,” says Kiliyan. However, when they noticed the importance of the music they were writing, there was a shift in momentum that came to their song-writing.

To Kiliyan, writing music was an escape. Like many good bands, Kiliyan found that the road to success wasn’t about striving for fame, but relaying an experience into the airwaves for people to hear and relate to.

“For me personally, when I think about writing music, I just try to selfishly workout some things that I’m going through on a piece of paper. But the beautiful thing about that is when you materialize your thoughts you start to realize that people all around you are going through the same thing,” says Kiliyan. For him, that’s the most liberating thing about music.

“It’s about the realization of wholeness. There’s not too many unique feelings and you’re going through something similar to someone else. That’s what make music medicine.”

That realization ended up allowing Kiliyan to write some of the most anthemic music of his career in the song, “Soul”.

“When I wrote Soul, I wrote it as it was happening, which was a cool experience for me. When I listen to it now it’s almost like a time-capsule,” says Kiliyan.

“I literally looked at the clock and it said 12:31. I was sitting at my table and there was a bunch of bills on it. I was stressed out, and the only thing I could think to do was write. In that moment, I felt this connection to something in the music that was pushing me forward when everything else was falling apart.”

In that moment, Kiliyan seemed to have found his emotive potential.

“That’s where the meaning of soul came from. If you don’t have anything, you have soul. That’s the one song for me that has that emotion to it”.

With emotive potential, mature-song-writing, and momentum carrying them through the year, the band have been enjoying their time on the road with Angels and Airwaves, lead by Tom DeLonge, a voice they grew up listening to.

“It’s pretty surreal,” says Kiliyan. “I can speak for the rest of the guys when I say we all grew up listening to Tom DeLonge’s voice on our Walkman.” DeLonge has been a powerhouse name in music since the 1990’s with his generation defining band, blink-182.

“If I wasn’t opening the show, I’d probably pay to be there,” jokes Kiliyan. “What’s so amazing is that Tom is one of the nicest guys we’ve had the honor of touring with. He’s really just friendly and he’s really funny. He’s a really cool guy.”

Of course, however, we had to see if Kiliyan had been read in on the mysterious world of UFO’s that DeLonge has been revolutionizing.

“I haven’t been read into the loop yet,” says Kiliyan. “But on stage he’s been making it clear that in the next couple of years’ things are going to get really interesting. I’m just as much waiting for that as everyone else”

Moving forward, the Charming Liars seem to be always looking into what to do next. To no surprise, their love for music is making them eager to get right back to the grind.

“The great thing about the band in my opinion is the fact that we love to write, record, and make music,” says Kiliyan. “I think the next thing In line for us is to record again. We already have half of our next record written. I know we’re still playing ‘Thought Flesh and Bone’, but we’re always moving forward and recording.”

As excited as they are to continue their path to success, they still want to enjoy their time on the road. “I think we’re going to tour for the next six or seven months coming up here and then make the new record. Basically just doing it all over again!”

Catch the Charming Liars on tour and buy your tickets here! Or, check them out on social media and keep up to date on what they’re up to next by following them on Twitter below!

@Charmingliars