Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan Is ‘a Lot Happier’

Despite his warmly polite demeanor, Norma Jean vocalist Cory Brandan has had a troubled adulthood. His turbulent married life has been publicized before, and the impact of these life experiences made their way in lyrical form onto their latest effort, 'The Anti-Mother.'

"Our whole last record is about that. A lot of that stuff is," the Arkansas native told Noisecreep. "It's very personal. This is kind of a good thing, because no one's really asked me this before, because since that time, things are different now. That was definitely a phase I was going through. Now things are different."

Not only did Brandan find catharsis in releasing frustration through recorded music, but his life has repaired in more practical ways as well. "I'm with a girl now. Her name is Rachel, and she's wonderful," Brandon continued, smiling. "She's the best thing I've ever met in my life, and you never think that's going to happen again. I'm 33 years old, I have two kids, a single parent. You think, 'Ah, that's it. I'm done.' But she's great. I'm putting all my focus into her and my family now, and I'm a lot happier honestly."

Divorce may be less of a taboo in modern times, but dealing with its destructive effects is still a difficult task -- not to mention soaking the situation in imagery and poetic verse. "I think when I try to add cryptic things into a song," Brandan continued, "it ends up there anyway. I think, unless you want your lyrics to sound very cheesy, it's kinda hard not to use metaphors."

"Really the way it works is, when I think of a song I want to write, it's never really about something. It's more inspired by it, which might sound like a cop out," Brandon explained about his word crafting. "I don't want to come to this point now, where I don't think the same thing I used to ... I wanted it to be able to relate to anybody, not just me. And I'm the only one who gets it, and maybe you'll think it's a cool song. I wanted to be like, 'Here's my experience I went through. How can I put that into lyrics where maybe anybody else who's been through a similar experience could somehow get something else, something out of it?'"