Texas in July Bassist on Their New Album’s Sound: ‘It’s Finally Us’

"We decided to just call the album Texas In July because the more we listened to the final product, the more we realized that we had finally found what we had been trying to write for years," Texas In July bassist Ben Witkowski tells Noisecreep.

We're on the phone with Witkowski during Texas In July's current European tour in support of their brand new self-titled album. The bassist says while he's extremely proud of their new record, he still stands behind their earlier work. "We were super-young when we wrote I Am [2009], but a lot of people love it. So I try not to bash our older songs. I'm still pleased with that early stuff."

For Texas In July, the Pennsylvania-based metalcore group worked with producer Will Putney (For Today, Chiodos), resulting in their most dynamic set of songs yet. "With this album, we can finally say, 'It's finally us.' We worked really hard on the songwriting and Will was so easy to work with."

The album also features guest performances from vocalist Dave Stephens of We Came As Romans, August Burns Red drummer Matt Greiner and Hundredth vocalist Chad Johnson.

Witkowski handles the lyrics for Texas In July, but he says he's always open to discuss them with his bandmates. "They know me really well. A good majority of what I write about they can almost pick out and know what I'm thinking. But yeah, if there's something they're not getting, I'm always happy to explain where I'm coming from. I'm open to their ideas as well.

"I don't get approached by our fans as much as I would like about my lyrics [laughs]. But it does happen sometimes. What's more important to me is that they make what they want from the lyrics. It's more important for me to have them singing along to our stuff in their cars, or at our shows, than sitting their and just analyzing the lyrics. They can always take our songs and create their own meanings to them."

Texas In July is out now via Equal Vision Records and available at this link.