In 2009, The Like's Z Berg, Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald, Rilo Kiley's Jason Boesel, Maroon 5's James Valentine and Michael Runion formed a band called JJAMZ. After releasing one album in 2012, called Suicide Pact, Valentine then left the band, and its remaining members eventually regrouped to form PHASES. On Friday, September 18, PHASES will release For Life, their first album under their new name, which they consider to be a PHASES debut album, not a JJAMZ follow-up.
"JJAMZ really was a side project and was something that happened over the course of years and would happen whenever we were away from our other bands and could get together and write and record music," Berg tells ABC Radio. "But PHASES is really a band with a very clear vision and a very clear idea of who it is and what it wants to say. [For Life] definitely feels like the first of many to come."
For Life features the lead single "I'm in Love with My Life," an incredibly upbeat and positive song. However, the overwhelming happiness of "I'm in Love with My Life" isn't present in every song of For Life.
"What I love about this record is that I feel like it covers a lot of ground emotionally and intellectually and subject matter-wise," Berg says. "I mean it's not all just all, 'Hey, life is great!,' I think there's a lot more sort of complexity to its subject matter."
Even if it's a lot more cheery than the rest of For Life, PHASES don't believe that the single feels out of place on the album.
"It's sort of an outlier on the record in its just pure positivity, but it really fits in with the rest," Boesel tells ABC Radio. "I think it's one of the peaks of that emotion, but it kind of jives with the rest of it as a whole, I would say."
For Berg, the happiness of "I'm in Love with My Life" reflects the same emotions she felt when PHASES was recording For Life.
"What became so great about 'I'm in Love with My Life' -- and it was also the last thing we finished for the record -- is that it really did illustrate what made this record different from anything we've worked on before," she says. "Whether the subject matter ranges from heartbreak to happiness, the overwhelming feeling of making this was one of pure joy and friendship."
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