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Photos: Moe Horta, Will Levy, Kevin Geyer and Eric Soucy

Forming in 2007 with four Billboard-charting albums already under their belts, pop-punk trailblazers The Story So Far find themselves with one of the most anticipated records of 2024 due out this summer. 

Leading up to the June 21st release date of their ten-track LP I Want To Disappear, the NorCal outfit has dropped singles “All This Time,” “Letterman,” and “Big Blind,” quickly amassing over 10.5 million streams on Spotify alone.

Six years removed from their previous release — the subdued Proper Dose — The Story So Far looked to shake things up as they enlisted, for the first time, producer Jon Markson (Drug Church, KOYO). 

Working tirelessly together, the band and Markson set out to record I Want To Disappear with only 20 days to capture the magic. 

“During guitar tracking, we made a point to constantly experiment with the pairing of guitars, front end color/pedals, and amps,” says Markson. “We weren’t afraid to change the setup on a per section of each song basis. It just had to ‘feel’ right.” 

Known for their heavy-hitting riffs and dreamy acoustic tones, guitarists Will Levy and Kevin Geyer have curated a one-of-a-kind sound using a variety of vintage and specialty gear, which Markson quickly took note of. 

"Taking shipment of their guitars,” he adds, “I immediately noticed the well-curated, vibey, and varied guitar collection. A quality selection with separate sonic purposes tuned well to the style of both of their playing.” 

Diving deeper behind the scenes of I Want To Disappear, The Noise sat down with Levy and Geyer to hear more about the work they put into their band’s forthcoming album.

To see what they both had to say about vibing with Markson, having to re-record their new album, plus a full breakdown of the gear used during the recording process, be sure to read below. Afterward, make sure to pre-order I Want To Disappear here.

Let’s dive right in and discuss some of the gear used while recording your new album I Want To Disappear. What would you say is the biggest difference gear-wise for this record compared to your previous releases?

WILL LEVY: In the past we’ve taken the approach of, “We're going to bring 12 guitars to the studio or as many guitars and options of amps as possible.” This time, there was a little more focus because we had to ship everything. So we were very selective like, “I know I need these four guitars and I need these one or two amps, and whatever the studio has, we can use.”

Even though the studio had a million options, I think the approach was, “Well, we know what our sound is. We know what kind of tones we're striving for. And I know that these tools will make that possible.”

When reviewing the list of gear used for recording this album, I noticed the Ed O'Brien Stratocaster was listed. Was Radiohead specifically an inspiration sound-wise or is that just a guitar you happened to have and wanted to use? 

KEVIN GEYER: I mean, Radiohead's hella cool and honestly, like that Strat specifically, I got a while ago and the stock pickups that come in that are called sustainer pickups. The whole thing is made so you can like wring out a quarter note and it’ll kind of like sustain that for really long. That's the kind of Radiohead thing, that's like his signature guitar. And I just ripped all of that out. 

My pickups are just like regular Strat pickups in that one. And I really like that guitar, but I don't think we were leaning towards Radiohead-specific tones. We all like Radiohead, obviously, but it's a whole different world.

In a few of the behind-the-scenes photos you guys posted, you used what appeared to be gaff tape, or something similar, over most of the strings on a couple of different guitars. Can you explain what was going on in those photos and what song(s) you used that method for?

KG: Pretty much every song. Everything. 

WL: So basically, I play, let's say, out of the six strings on said guitar, I probably play about three or four of them. So we tape the bottom ones. I play really hard and really sloppy, so my hand will just hit the extra strings creating extra noise. So I'm just muting them. That's literally all it is. We say it's recording with tape. It's the analog way. That's just our inside joke. But yeah, it's literally just to mute the other strings.

The producer on this record, Jon Markson, mentioned that you guys would change gear sometimes multiple times, even on a single song. Is that the norm for The Story So Far or did that inspiration come from somewhere else?

KG: Throughout all the records we've done, I think something we learned from Sam Pura [producer] was from part to part we switched guitars just to fit the vibe of the part pretty often. So on any given song, the leads could be played on three different guitars and then the doubles for all those parts on different guitars. And then amps, I think we switch around a little bit less just because those kind of glue everything together in my mind. For all the records we've done, that's kind of just how I remember always doing it. So it made more sense to keep doing that rather than playing everything with the same gear, it all just kind of sounds the same. We want to give each part the song its own voice.

WL: Yeah, it becomes pretty obvious while you're playing something and tracking it. Like you already have the drums tracked, you might have the bass tracked and something's not feeling right or sounding right. It becomes very obvious to me. Like, “Okay, well, this isn't cutting it. We should try something else.” It's usually pretty obvious, and it's like, “No harm, no foul. Might as well just try it while it's there.” And sometimes you go back and pick up the guitar that you were already tracking with, but something just kind of comes up in your ears and doesn't feel cohesive.

This marks your first release working with Jon Markson as producer. Can you describe what that process looked like? Did he have any pieces of gear that you guys were excited to use?

KG: It was really fun working with him. I think he was exactly what we needed as far as a producer goes because he is kind of the same type of maniacal, evil genius of really dialing things in. I don't even know how to describe it without making him sound crazy, but crazy in the best way. He really cares about the very minute details. He'll be A/B’ing something and he will be like, “You hear that?” And we'll be like, “No, but I trust you, of course.” So it was a lot of trusting him and he would give us a lot of input on the pre-production side when we were finishing the writing process. He'd be like, “Oh, I really like this,” where it's parts we hadn't really fallen in love with in any way or songs in general that he would really connect with. And we were like, “Yeah, maybe, I guess that's cool.” And then he would be like, “I absolutely love this.”

That would kind of give us the license to really dive into it and like it, for myself at least. And he had this really sick Ampeg V-4 that, even before we plugged it in, he was like, “Yeah, I guess we could use that.” And once we plugged it in and started using it, we used it all over the place. He was the perfect kind of motivation that we needed.

We had already recorded everything and did pre-production with the intent of trying to make it the record. But what we had recorded wasn't really working for us. It just felt like it was missing some sort of oomph to it that wasn't there.

Was that pretty much done in its entirety?

WL: It was like 70%-80% done.

And you went back and pretty much re-recorded the entire thing with Jon?

KG: Yeah. I think going into it as prepared as we were, having recorded everything already helped because then we got to dive into tones a little more. He was just the perfect motivation we needed to put them across the finish line because we had been stagnant with them for so long.

WL: We needed a driver. We basically showed up with seven or eight recorded songs that were now demos at this point. And before we even started tracking anything, Jon just pulled up the folder on his computer and said, “Okay, track one. Let's listen and dive in and see what we like, what we don't like, what can change, what should stay.” And we did that for like two days before we did any real recording. We just laid everything out and built a map, which was very helpful. He wasn't coming in like, “Well, this is how I'm going to do something.” It was like, “Well, let's work together on this thing” and “Here's our North Star and I think this is how we should all get there.”

KG: We went into it a little discouraged from the previous recording. So going in and having someone be really stoked on it their first time hearing everything and he didn't have the baggage of the last year of us working on it that we did. It was very refreshing to have his fresh, excited enthusiasm.

Do you think some of that pressure or jadedness came from it being so long between you guys going through that formal recording process again?

WL: Yes, it's fair to say. We demoed with two or three different engineers in LA. We were trying a lot of new things as a band. And individually, we've all recorded with a bunch of different engineers and producers throughout the years. But as far as this band goes, we were like, “Okay, we're going to try this guy. Well, that didn't really work. We're going to try this guy. Okay, that didn't really work. Well, let's do this. We'll do it at home.” And it still wasn't happening for us, right? So what, four-ish, five years of meetings and doing a week here, a weekend there – we were a little jaded and discouraged.”

For fans who didn’t know what was going on, they probably thought you guys were having time off between records, not knowing there's all of this going on behind the scenes. You guys already had stuff recorded, but you went to Jon and he was able to find that spark in you guys and breathe more life into the songs. Without him, someone could have just mixed the songs and you could have called it a day basically.

KG: And we tried to do that. Basically. Like the first mix of “Big Blind” was exactly that. We had the sessions that ended up just being demos, but we really wanted to put something out. We were doing mixes and we got like fucking 15 revisions on that one “Big Blind” mix. It got to the point where I [couldn’t] even tell if [it was] better. So we just kind of settled for that one song and then knew that if we're going to do the whole record like this, we just have to start from scratch and do it as one big piece because up until then, it was pretty disjointed. 

I remember seeing somewhere that on Proper Dose, you guys did something out-of-the-box with the microphone on “Line” to achieve the vocal effects. Can you explain what that was and if you used any unconventional recording methods on this album?

KG: I think what you're probably referring to is – to get a really watery underwater effect – we literally put a condom over the top of a microphone and put that microphone underwater in a wine glass. I think that's an old Eric Valentine [producer, Good Charlotte, Taking Back Sunday] trick that Sam wanted to try. So that's what we were doing for a couple parts on that record.

WL: I think for this record, we didn’t do anything that out of the ordinary. I know we used a load box for the speaker cabinets, which I don't know if we've done that in the past.

KG: I want to say we were doing it live before we did it on the record. I think that was kind of the foot in the door for us. We were trusting the process with our sound guy, Zack. I think we toured with Rise Against and they were doing that. And this was back when we were like, “You gotta do it analog. We’ve gotta do everything as we've always done it.”

Then it was like, “Well, this is what they do, maybe we should try it.” Then we tried it and Zack showed us board mixes that he recorded and it sounded hella good. So doing it live was kind of a good segue to us using it on the record.

How has your gear evolved over the years from playing smaller clubs like 924 Gilman versus playing bigger venues with blink-182 and A Day To Remember?

WL: I play this thing called Neural DSP Quad Cortex which every bone in my body is like, “Don't do it” because it's not an amp. It's like a computer, essentially. Tons of bands are on it. Your signal is going straight to front of house. I don't even have an amp. I have a speaker cabinet on stage, which isn't even mic’d or anything, it's all digital. I saw a band live a couple of years ago and it was the best-sounding thing ever. And I was like, “Well, how do I achieve something close to this? Well, here's what they use.” So I ended up getting one. It was a massive learning curve and I'm still learning and it's still very frustrating.

But, for front of house purposes, it sounds better. Other than that, we still have sound on stage, we still have speaker cabinets. We're still playing. There's no tracks. We're on in-ear monitors now, which is very different. That's the biggest change as a group for sure.

We're about to do our second tour with in-ears. It's very different.

Wow, so the in-ear monitors are relatively new for you guys?

WL: Yeah, we did it on the blink tour. 

You were just using floor monitors prior, and that’s it?

WL: Yeah, you know, you can't really hear yourself. And after so many years of that, you're just not really hearing anything. Then you pop these in-ears in and you get a mix that you can pan guitar to one side and vocals to the other. You have a mini studio mix.

It definitely takes a few days to get used to. We just had rehearsals the other day and we're popping them in and I forgot what it felt like and what it sounded like. So it took a while to get back into the groove. But they're dope. I like in-ear monitors.

KG: I think it's context too. We were going into the blink tour being like, these are much bigger spatially, there's just nothing that's catching our sound. And the stages are just wide open and it's hundreds of feet to the roof. So with wedges, it would just kind of disappear if you're not standing right in front of it. You just don't hear anything. So in that type of venue, and the venues we’ll be playing this summer, you kind of need it. Otherwise, you just can't hear anything unless you're literally standing right in front of it.

So if we're playing a small club, like we're doing Europe later this year A) I don't think we can really afford on that budget the whole in-ear rig, and B) the venues are just smaller so I don’t think we really need it. And in the same way, it's kind of embarrassing when you see a band roll up to a place like Gilman with a full in-ear rig and you're like, I don't think you need that here. Earn your stripes a little bit. Just show up and play; You don't need the computer.

It sounds very similar to photography – I know you guys are both into film. Some people are on auto settings all the time, and there's nothing wrong with that. But you've got to get to a point where you can take off the auto settings and earn your stripes a little bit. With both of you guys being such big fans of film and analog cameras, does that translate to your gear as well?

KG: I think Will touched on it a little bit. There's a huge learning curve that comes with adopting a new system, like with the Neural stuff. It can sound incredible. It can sound indistinguishable from a real guitar amp. But I think what my skill set is like, I know how to use a tube amp with guitar pedals, and that's how I can achieve the tone that I want to do.

I think leaning into what I know how to do is what's going to give me what I want out of it. And the same can go for a Neural or something. Any one of those emulators can, if you know exactly how to use that system, and can do [it] each step of the way.

But I think it's about using whatever you feel comfortable with to achieve what you're looking for. And I think with photography, as you're saying, it’s the same thing. For example, I have a digital camera that I have no fucking clue how to use. There's like 8000 buttons, or I can use my film camera that I know how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed. That's all I really think about. I can get much better photos that way than trying to do the same thing on a digital. There's just too much going on there. 

And it's the same for the Neural. It's just a whole other world of tone that I have no fucking clue how to use. And I just want to know how to do my own thing. That's just where I draw the line.

For anyone who might be learning to play an instrument right now or wanting to start a band, do you have any gear recommendations?

WL: Get a guitar that motivates you to pick it up and is fun and easy to play. Don't worry about what people are going to think about said guitar. If you like it and you look at it day-to-day and you go, “Oh, I can't wait to play that,” that's the guitar for you. 

KG: Yeah, I think regardless of what guitar you get, get it set up by a pro because that can make all the difference. You can have the nicest, most expensive guitar and then the action is too high or the neck is warped in some way, and it just feels like shit, and you don't want to play it. You could also have a $200 guitar with really nice playing action, and it could feel just as good. You're not going to really notice the sound that much if you're just starting to play. So make sure it feels good.

For acoustic guitars on this record, you both used a variety of Martin guitars. Was there any specific reason why you chose Martin's exclusively?

KG: I don't think it's a brand loyalty thing. I mean, for the sake of if they hear this - we only ever use Martin's and they're the best guitars anyone has ever made.

WL: I just think we both kind of lean towards the feel and the sound of Martin. We kind of always have as fans of guitars. 

KG: Parker’s [Cannon, singer] friend's dad gave Parker a guitar. It's like the Eric Clapton signature acoustic. It's the Martin 000-28EC from the 90’s. I remember playing that for I think the last song on the record. And at the time, it was just the perfect guitar tone, like acoustic, and very full. I bought the Martin OM-28 that I used a bunch on the record because the specs are almost exactly the same as that guitar. I was basically just trying to get that guitar without the Eric Clapton signature on the fucking thing.

For your side projects [Same Side, Pile of Love, Cold Moon], what's your approach gear-wise and recording? Does it differ from The Story So Far?

KG: I mean, for Same Side – at least the recordings that I've been doing more recently – I've been using basically the Jazzmaster that's in the list of guitars that I used. That's pretty much my go-to guitar. And then the same bass for Pile of Love. And I don't think that's necessarily because the tones are so unique and specific, they just do everything I need them to do. It might be because the songs kind of meld to the guitars themselves just because I'm comfortable using them. But the choices aren't “I'm choosing this for that.” That's just what was there and they're like really good multi-tools to handle all the sounds that I think I could want.

WL: So at least with the live shows for Same Side, I've switched to guitar and I've held on to gear for years like, “Oh, I will need this someday.” Then Kevin asked me to switch to guitar and so I’m like, “Oh, I have a Roland Jazz Chorus, that's perfect. Everything's already recorded and tracked and I know what sounds [Kevin] would like to achieve to kind of complement his tone and what he's doing. So it's like, “Well, I know I can use that. And I have this Jazzmaster, I'll just use those.” And those are completely separate for things that I wouldn't get the opportunity to really play them with The Story So Far, my role is very different. With The Story So Far, I'm like, power chords and big rock guitars and with Same Side, it’s a little more dialed back. There are moments for that. But it's not needed. So the approaches are a little different.

So it gives you the opportunity to use gear that you wouldn't normally get to use otherwise?

WL: And it's it's honestly really exciting because it's helped me be a little more free in my playing in terms of like “I'm not just playing rhythm guitar anymore.” There's leads and rhythm for Same Side, so I have to step my game up a little bit. It's not that it’s harder. It's just the role is different. So like, I'm more nervous because I didn't grow up as a lead riffer. And there are small moments that I have to do that and it's a lot of fun.

Are there any pieces of gear that you'll be bringing on the road for the first time on your upcoming tour with A Day To Remember?

WL: Honestly, the most exciting thing is that Ryan Torf is playing baritone on this tour. So when we were recording the record with Jon, somebody left a baritone at the studio one day for us to try and put over choruses. So it's on all the choruses, which just gives it a little extra low end and growl to every song. And Torf’s been playing third guitar for the last couple of years and he's exploring a lot of new spaces and sounds. With baritone on the record, we're like, “Well, what if you tried it on a few of the new songs?” So we tried it and the whole set is now just him playing baritone and it sounds fucking wild. 

It sounds really cool and blends a lot better with our sound. A third guitar is cool, but it tends to get things lost when he's doubling a lot of what I’m doing, especially parts that are in the same register. And now he's doubling things just in a lower register. So there's just an extra layer of ear candy there. We've never done that. I don't even think we've done baritone on a song.

KG: Yeah, baritone is weird because it kind of depends on the key of the song because it's tuned down to B. So depending on the key, if there's chords in the song that are basically lower than E, you can hit the lower octave of that. Some songs, if you play them on a baritone, the chords are just the same as it would be on a guitar. Certain chords you can hit like the lower octave of and it gives it just a ton of girth.

WL: The baritone is obvious to me on “All This Time,” when the chorus hits – you're hitting a low E on that, or I guess low B, it really elevates the music in a way that I don't think we've been able to achieve or really tried in the past. To me, it's a lot more noticeable there. 

KG: I think we spent a little more time recording this one trying to find the right voicings on a baritone. In the past, we've kind of just been like, “Well, it's the same as a guitar.” And then kind of gave up pretty quickly. This time, we were really going through the chord progressions and making sure every opportunity to get the lower voicing was made. And it really affected the sound of the record as a whole. Like a lot of the bigger parts, you can hear the lower, evil-sounding, low rumblings.

WL: And it kind of just happened. It wasn't really intentional. It was just like, “Oh, here's this thing.” I think somebody just started noodling around on it, and then we plugged it in and whatever song we were tracking, we're like, “Well, let's just like, fuck around here and try it.” And it was like, “Oh my god, this sounds wild. I think we have to do this on every song now.”

To wrap things up, is there anything tone-wise or riff-wise that you wanted to highlight? Are there any specific moments you’d like fans to pay attention to?

KG: There's certain riffs that I think we really nailed mostly on “All This Time,” the lead part in the bridge - I think whatever layers we did there are super dope. That’s already out so people can listen to that. I think the same kind of tones on “Keep You Around,” that one is really cool tonally.

WL: “White Shores” has a lot of the elements of The Story So Far packed into one song, while also being a new thing for us in a way. But I think tonally, it has the coolest tones of the record. There's just a lot going on without it feeling like there's a lot going on, but we know there’s a lot happening.

Gear List:

Kevin Geyer - lead guitar

Electric Guitars:

2004 Rickenbacker 370 montezuma brown

1967 Gibson ES-330 cherry red

Jazzmaster, MJT body, Musikraft neck, Lollar original ‘58 neck pickup and p90 bridge pickup

2018 Fender EOB Stratocaster with Lollar Special S pickups

Acoustic Guitars:

2022 Martin OM-28

1996 Martin 000-28EC

 Amps:

1981 Marshall JCM 800

2020 Badcat Cub III 40

Ampeg V-4

Will Levy - rhythm guitar

Electric Guitars:

2018 Rock N Roll Relics Jazz90

1981 Burny Les Paul Custom

2010 Gibson ES-335

1981 Gibson Firebrand “The Paul”

G5260 Electromatic Jet Baritone

2007 Gibson SG-3 

Acoustic Guitar:

2019 Martin 000-17

Amps:

Dexter “Bill” JMP/Fender Bassman

Roland Jazz Chorus 120

Pedals:

Benson Preamp

Boss Blues OD