Plans’ Cody Almond opens up on band’s lyrics, future intentions and goals in emotional interview—exclusive

All Punked Up’s John Aubert was given the opportunity to interview Cody Almond, the lead singer and guitarist from the Indianapolis, Indiana based punk rock band Plans. You can listen to the full interview below.

Plans is a newer band in the punk rock scene, as they only have one EP called, “Ending // Starting“, which came out in July of 2016. The EP brings a tone of music similar to Brand New, an emo punk rock band, but carries unique attributes and deep meaning.  “Ending // Starting” has six songs, all that are about true events that Almond feels the world needed to hear lyrically.

We were able to touch on why the EP was so colorful with it’s emo vibe, what caused the creation of such music, the band’s future, and what Almond truly believes with punk rock music.

“We kind of wanted this bummer punk rock emo kind of vibe. All of the songs from “Ending // Starting”, comes from when I was ending a [previous] band and starting a new one [Plans].

Almond goes deeper into why he wrote the songs, which touched not only me, but listeners alike.

“Answering Machine” was about someone very close to me who took their own life when I was a freshman is high school. That had a huge impact on why I began to play music. “Sleep” was about my own depression and suicidal tendencies, and our opening song “Depaysement” was about me visiting my cousin’s grave, who killed himself”

Listening to the meaning of the songs and revisiting them gives goose-bumps and truly opens your mind to the heartache that Cody faced, but was brave enough to put in a song.

Almond felt that including these songs were a great way of, “opening a wound” and giving the world his view on the experiences he’s faced and how he’s dealt with them. Almond’s main focus on the record was to touch on suicide, losing the people you love, and dealing with depressive thoughts.

” I wanted to write something real. I dabbled on that subject before, this all happened when I was a freshman in high school and I didn’t write these songs until I was 22. So, it took up a large chunk of my life that I dealt with but never vocalized it… I wanted to say that we can be upset together, but get better together”.

Despite all of the more sad music Almond has written, his focus has changed on a more improved and uplifting style of music that the band has been working on for quite sometime. Almond confessed that the band is going to be recording a new set of songs, whether it be an EP or a split, called “Get The Bad Out“.

Almond said that he had fans come up to him after shows saying how touched they were and how sad the music was. He felt like he could find another way to touch people lyrically, but in a more therapeutic way to further the healing process.

“Sometimes you have to go through the darkest part of the tunnel to see the light. This concept grew in our minds that we don’t want to be the band that just bums people out. So, we thought about how we can take all these bad things we’ve been writing about and make them positive. You got to get the bad out to make room for the good.”

The band wanted to find that therapeutic melody that soothes hurting souls by throwing the pain at you,  subtly allowing the good to take the place of the ache.

The band has about ten songs without lyrics right now for “Get The Bad Out“, so a lot of work is in progress. They’re going to be in the studio in April to start working on the new batch of music, which is very exciting to hear.

However, Almond’s goals are as humble as they come. Whether it be making millions or nothing at all, Almond is purely set on making the music he loves with the people who enjoy it most.

“Life is too short to not do the things you enjoy. Music is the only thing that makes sense to me, I don’t have a life-long plan, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know this is where I belong right now and I can speak for all of the guys when I say we belong playing for 25 kids in someone’s basement. I’ll have a hell of a story to tell on my death bed.”

Almond mentioned further that where the band is, what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it, is enough to make them happy with their lives. He feels that it’s better to do what you love and do it honestly, rather than be an internet sensation with, ” a lot of Facebook likes.”.  Emotional connection is worth more than fame and glory to Almond.

“I would prefer to never go anywhere but just have done something that mattered, even if it’s at a small scale.”

Almond later joked that unlike everyone else, “Everyone [Plans] is broke at the end of the day”.

Cody’s unbelievable passion and determination to touch with listeners is something that punk rock lacks in everyday life. Plan’s goal is what punk rock artists need to strive for because in the end,  touching on life’s real problems and emotions are greater than the amount of Twitter followers you have, or the amount of records you sell.

Their music is as inspiring as their main focus on what it means to be a band and hopefully their music is able to reach those very souls who need a therapeutic remedy that can’t be sold as a prescription, but as a song.

If you want to hear the full interview (which I urge you to do), click on the video below:

If you want to listen to Plans full EP (also encouraged), “Ending // Starting” click here

Follow me on Twitter: @Johnaubert97