Sean Neumann–who goes under the name Jupiter Styles–has an innate sense of melody. You feel the reverberations and echoes of his choruses for several minutes after they are finished. Even dating back to his previous moniker Single Player, he was able to do this in small amounts of time, like in “TV Theme,” which contains maybe 10 seconds worth of vocals.
On his newest record, Ultra St. Opera, Neumann leans even harder into his pop radio sensibilities. The record is meticulously crafted, with vocal harmonies that feel pained over that may pass an inattentive listener by. There are callbacks, with certain melodies running throughout multiple tracks. It’s all of these little touches which makes the record memorable.
I was able to chat with Neumann about bands that inspired or influenced many of the choices on the forthcoming record. Below, you’ll find his comments about each selection:
Sun Kil Moon – “Micheline”
His writing style is really cool to me. I like trying to be as open as possible. I think a lot of that comes from being a journalist as well–just total transparency. “Blunt” is the perfect word. There are a few songs on Ultra St. Opera that are very blunt.
Witch In Her Tomb – “Meditations X”
I went to a lot of shows with John Menchaca and Kyle Lang, who were hardcore kids.This was me being in Champaign, so I was 17 or 18. I had roots with music far before that, but this was a monumental time in my life. I really fell in love going to hardcore shows. One of my dreams is to be on some kind of Youth Attack (Colorado hardcore label) project or be in a band with John. I don’t listen to a lot of black metal, but most of the black metal I listen to is through John.
Now, Now – “The Pull”
That record (Threads) has a lot of callbacks. “The Pull” is almost like a prelude to a song that is later on the record. I think it’s called “Thread.” Later in the record, there’s a song that uses that same melody. On our record, we tried to do that. We took pieces from other songs and made little noise loops that connect song to song. That was to make the record feel like one cohesive piece. I really like records that do callbacks throughout an entire record.
Special Death – “Night With A Friend”
That’s like my favorite song of all time. I used to play in Easter, which was basically Special Death. Kyle Lang just changed the name. We played that song every single time. There’s videos of us playing it back in 2012 in champaign.That was my first few months of college, doing little weekend tours with Easter. Kyle is one of my favorite songwriters. I grew up listening to Kyle play music. I’ve always really connected to everything he’s written, lyrically and musically. He writes such good melodies.
Night With a Friend reminds me of growing up. It reminds me of our time in college playing music together and my first experiences touring. It’s just one of the best melodies I’ve ever heard. It does such a good job of going from quiet to loud.
Dismemberment Plan – “What Do You Want Me to Say?”
That note that goes over and over has the same effect of a panic chord. It makes you unsettled. It makes it uncomfortable to listen to for a second. Then, all of a sudden it’s a pop song. It goes from a kind of calmer verse to an explosion of a chorus. It is kind of like Figure In The Sky, the fourth song on our record.
Feist – “A Man Is Not His Song”
Feist is one of my all time favorite musicians, hands down. The music has always really connected with me. It was an artist I started listening to at the exact right time as a kid. The end of the song all of a sudden switches into this wacky ass thing. “Is this like when I was a kid and I would catch a different radio signal?” I thought it was just a really goofy thing to do, coming out of a very serious song. It kind of lightens the mood, but it is wacky and makes things fun. I guess my version of it was doing a black metal song.
“Powerpuff Girls Theme Song”
When we were recording “Peace Dog,” I’ve always imagined it as an intro to a cartoon and Powerpuff Girls was the closest thing I could think of. I wasn’t imagining the exact song, but I was imagining the intro graphics. This would be the theme song for a superhero kids show.
Built To Spill – “Carry The Zero”
Carry The Zero has a little riff at the end. The song supermodel, the second song on the record, has a similar thing. Marcus goes from hitting the crashes to hitting the hi – “hat. It’s just more of a straight beat. You can hear it as it’s fading out. We do it live a lot more clearly. That was the big connection there.
Peter Bjorn And John – “Up Against The Wall”
That whole album Writer’s Block is kind of built for commercials. The ninth song on the record [Ultra St. Opera], “Life Goes on When You’re Not Around,” fits the mold of clean guitars and car commercials. I’ve been listening to a lot of Grimes lately. I started to realize that in every single one of her songs, the music doesn’t change, but the melody over the top does. All that changes over it is the vocal melody. That’s the same thing with “Up Against The Wall.” That is something that I think is a thread through our shit too. I think the vocal melodies drive a lot of it versus anything happening with the music.
The Killers – “All These Things That I’ve Done”
That song is crazy. “Could Not Exist” has a similar thing going on with electronic drums. The vocal melody is virtually the same for the whole second half of the song. It just builds with harmonies and guitars. Things just start building on top of it, which is what that The Killers song does, too.
Modest Mouse – “Polar Opposites”
I think a lot of the bass lines on the record and the way I play bass is from Eric Judy. It’s not just there for padding. It is its own thing. In “Polar Opposites,” the guitar is just there for filler instead of the bass. It’s kind of cool when things get flip-flopped.
Oasis – “Champagne Supernova”
I fucking hate Oasis. I hate their whole shtick of hating each other. But, “Champagne Supernova” is just good. I listened to “Champagne Supernova” and said, “It’s eight minutes and they literally say five lines of lyrics.” But, it’s such a fucking good song. They wrote a good melody and sat on the bench for a while. It’s kind of offensive as a listener. You took this long of a time with the melody, but didn’t take the time to say anything. There’s a song called “Play Cool” [on the record] that has a loose feel to it. That was the song I could think of that would be somewhat connected.
Sugar Ray – “Someday”
Pop radio was so influential. Before I knew anything about punk music, [I listened to] what was on the radio. In terms of forming melodies, that stuff comes from that late 90’s era of music, which is why I put it on here. It is hard to list things that influenced how this band sounds without mentioning anything from that era. It’s in my DNA.
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