Blueprint Tokyo dive into the emotions behind their upcoming EP Dark New Days, discussing urgency, reflection, and growth while revealing the stories, struggles, and energy shaping this concise, powerful release.
1. Your upcoming EP “Dark New Days” explores themes of pressure, repetition, and reflection. What was happening in your lives during the writing process that shaped the emotional direction of this record?
It’s an amalgamation of general life going on. Jobs, family, music all play into it with being pulled in numerous directions. We’ve had our ups and downs as everyone has and we’ve always tried to channel those feelings into our music.
2. The lead single “Orange Tiger” opens the EP with a strong sense of urgency and momentum. Why did you choose this track to introduce the project, and what does it represent within the overall story of the EP?
We’re trying to constantly write and as we got serious about doing an EP a collection of songs seemed to jump out at us. Orange Tiger was the first one we actually finished from that set and we put it aside and felt like it was a good re-introduction to Blueprint Tokyo and had the sense of urgency we wanted to share.
3. The record balances driving alternative rock energy with more restrained and introspective moments. How did you approach finding that balance between intensity and emotional depth?
We set out really just to say these are the songs, and not stress too much about balancing those moments. We know ourselves well enough that songs happen (or not). The balance maybe purely accidental, maybe cosmic, kismet, who knows. But we did want a little more urgency and aggressive vibes that was in the back of our mind as we were writing. Songs that we could really have a lot of fun playing live and being able to rock on stage was a big driver.
4. You’ve described Dark New Days as more about refinement than reinvention. In what ways do you feel your sound has evolved or tightened compared to your previous releases?
It’s always going to be us. We have the same instruments, but after our last album the full-length Neon Circuits and the Mission of Hope, it was a lot of music. That album was almost 16 songs and we started from probably double that number. We wanted to dial it back slightly into something that was manageable and easier to digest in a quick maybe 20 minute setting. And then musically, just refine what we do, but just dialed up performance-wise, production-wise, and even release-wise.
5. The EP seems carefully structured, with deliberate sequencing and atmosphere. How important was the flow of the six tracks when you were putting the final version of the record together?
The world mostly operates in singles, so taking any individual song by itself was important. But we still also love albums and wanted to put out a cohesive album. While we’d never say it’s a concept album, very loosely, the album does tell the story of relationships won, lost, fighting for their life, and acceptance of the reality. We put time and effort into the sequence.
6. With Dark New Days arriving on May 1, what do you hope listeners take away from the EP after experiencing it from start to finish?
Pretty simply, we just hope to win fans both new and old. And to have it an album that they go back to repeatedly and find their favorite songs over time.
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