Knumears understand that they don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re part of a sonic tradition that's been evolving for decades: call it screamo, skramz, post-hardcore, call it anything you want, but it can only be carried on by those who truly love it. The band’s debut album,
Directions, is equal parts love letter and cartography project, exploring the genre from its roots in hardcore to the contemporary scene bubbling up on the West Coast, and even contributing to a blueprint for a new generation of screamo fanatics. But perhaps most importantly,
Directions–like many of the genre’s best releases–is simply about young musicians expressing themselves through some of the most explosively cathartic music imaginable.
For the first five years they’ve been a band, the only constant for Knumears has been movement. Since their inception in 2021, bassist Dante Garcia II, drummer Frankie Lopez, and vocalist/guitarist Matthew Cole have gone from playing packed local shows with kids screaming, climbing, shouting and dancing, to touring nationally and finding the same fervor and impassioned reactions at venues all across the country. Outside of that chaos, the group found themselves at crossroads in their own lives. They were discovering new relationships, cultivating their personal worlds, and learning to navigate the space between youth and adulthood–all while trying to find the time to forge their debut album.
“We were all struggling very much creatively when trying to write this album,” explains Cole. “We have several projects outside of Knumears [like vs self, Elm, and Bettin Horses] and I think exploring music that wasn’t necessarily about aggression helped clear some blocks–getting all of the ‘fun’ music out of the way so that we could focus on something deeper that leaves it all on the table.” With studio time on the books with legendary producer/engineer Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Joyce Manor, Touche Amore) the band’s writing process suddenly kicked into gear. “A few weeks before our time with Jack, we sat down and basically wrote the whole record. It practically was flowing out of us,” says Cole.
The result is an album that sounds as urgent and immediate as the feelings it explores.
Directions is steeped in the confusion of exiting adolescence and bracing for what’s next, the challenge of deciding what parts of life will stay with you and what might be left behind. Tracks like “One Light, Sunshine” or “Breaking Ground” delve into this kind of growth and the bonds that help foster it. Cole’s penmanship is sparse yet evocative, and intensely delivered alongside his caterwauling guitar riffs, Garcia’s distorted bass, and Lopez’s acrobatic drumming. “Lyrically I dug deep into the familial aspect of love and hardships,” Cole explains. “When most people think of a love song I think they have such a narrow headspace about it. Your one true love could be your grandma or your best friend, not just a significant other. I wanted to kind of focus on that with these lyrics. A lot of them are about my mother, father, and grandmother, who all shape my creativity a lot.”
On late album standout “Friendly Face” Cole howls “take me with you, we’ll watch the clouds / Each shape forming a different sound / Lay with me upon a bed of green, we’ll see things that only we can see” referring to the influence of his grandmother with his love for her emanating from the speakers alongside some of the album’s most pummeling instrumentals. “Those lyrics are really personal to me,” he says. “Whenever I'm lost or don't really know who I'm supposed to be, I just think of my childhood and the people that helped me grow.”
Throughout Directions, Knumears manage to take classic screamo tropes–the wildly swinging dynamics, the crushing ferocity, the unabashed vulnerability–and reinvigorate them through sheer force of will. “The early screamo bands are special because they didn't have pre-existing bands to try and sound like,” says Cole. “They were screaming because they needed to not because it was cool.” This appreciation for the genre’s forebears is built into the incendiary lead single “Fade Away,” which features a guest appearance from Jerome’s Dream frontman Jeff Smith. The song’s panicked opening riff gives way to a propulsive snare roll, exploding into a full-band attack as Smith’s unhinged voice rips through the finale.
In the end Knumears’ ability to encapsulate so much of what’s made screamo exciting and enduring simply comes down to the passion that’s so intrinsic to the genre itself. "I think what draws us to this type of music, just like everyone else, is the absolute raw emotion,” Cole says. “We all grew up listening to hardcore, and I think that allows you to see the world in a completely different light—both more creatively and intellectually. Not being raised on music that had nothing real to say was the best thing that happened to us."
