Just two years after releasing their impressive album The Midnight Demon Club, rock outfit Highly Suspect this week returned with their new record As Above, So Below, which finds singer Johnny Stevens peeling back layers and expressing himself in more vulnerable ways, perhaps more than on the band's previous material.
"I've always been pretty open and candid, but I think I was a little bit reserved on the last album," says Stevens, speaking with Variance in the days ahead of the album's release. "I don't think that I was trying to be reserved. I just don't think that I was in a place mentally where I was giving as much as I could have ... This time around, I definitely found myself in just a really good head space and was able to really dig into what it is that was going on in my life and in my head."
When the band announced the new album back in May, Stevens said he was finally acknowledging the "central conflict" in his life, recognizing his ego had led him to a dark place and on the brink of death. "If I’m being real, I hit rock bottom again. After another close call with death, I feel wide awake," he said at the time.
"I was kind of oblivious to the fact that what I do for a living and what I'm allowed to do in life is lucky, you know what I mean," explains Stevens. "I've really lucked out and so I don't think that I was as grateful for opportunities. My mind just wanted to fixate on what was wrong instead of being like, 'Holy shit, bro. Like, you've got a really interesting life and you get to do things and go places and, and interact with people that most people will never have that—the chance to do that.'"
According to Stevens, his life had been spiraling for some time already. After years of personal struggles, including feelings of defeat following the pandemic, the singer and guitarist had gained 60 pounds, and he remembers feeling helpless. "All of a sudden you wake up one day and you're like, 'Whoa, what happened to that life I had in 2016? I guess that's not permanent," he says.
Especially after the last record, fans have come to know Highly Suspect for bending genres and mixing sounds in ways that feel organic while still pushing up against the limits of what is considered "rock."
On "Summertime Voodoo," the lead single and opening track on As Above, So Below, Stevens declares in the second verse, "I'm sorry, Miss Jackson," a clear nod to OutKast's 2000 hit "Ms. Jackson."
"With that line in particular, I'm actually using it quite intentionally," admits Stevens, who adds: "I'm actually apologizing to somebody's mother because I don't think I was a good boyfriend. But it also was a cool play on words because I live in Atlanta now, too, so you've got to give credit to André 3000."
Stevens continues: "Hip-hop is one of my favorite genres by far. I can only listen to so much sad rock and roll before it affects my mental state. So, as a musician, I like classical, I like jazz, I like certain forms of country. I like all sorts of music and it depends on what setting I'm in. But hip-hop—I mean—I was born in 1986, so when I was 9, 10 years old, hip-hop is hitting this height and breaking down walls, and that saturated my fucking brain. It made me want to move to Brooklyn. André 3000 is one of the most important artists of all time. And he just wants to play the flute now. More power to him."
As Stevens embarks on this latest chapter in his personal life and in the life of his band, the musician says part of his journey more recently was affected by what he hopes was "the last of traumatic relationships" and the growth that comes with getting older.
"I don't think I was ever happy with myself while being in a relationship," says Stevens. "And it's hard to be in a relationship when you don't have any love for yourself. And I honestly don't think that there was any special epiphany or anything that came down from God necessarily. I just think that I'm getting older and I think that when you reach a certain age, you kind of like lighten up a little bit. Maybe you either do or you don't."
He adds: "I don't know how much time I have left on this path. I might as well try to let go of the shit that bothers me and just focus on this Henry David Thoreau, like, how beautiful is it to put your feet in the grass type of shit. 'Cause I do love life, but I had a lot of anger towards myself. And I actually don't hate myself the way I used to. I'm just content. And I think that's helping me in so many ways, but especially in the art. I just feel very uninhibited right now."■
