Facing all those internal “demons,” dread, anxiety, and the varied waves of depression, Weathers work on removing the shame around mental health issues on their second album Pillows & Therapy.
Videos by American Songwriter
A follow-up to the band’s 2018 debut Kids in the Night, Pillows & Therapy finds Weathers—made up of frontman Cameron Boyer, guitarist Cameron Olsen, bassist Brennan Bates, and drummer Cole Carson—revisiting songs from their past and present. “This album was pieced together over a long long period of time,” reveals Boyer. Many tracks date back to the Kids in the Night era with “American Dream,” a song initially written five years earlier, and “Talk is Hard,” which dates back three years.
“It’s a pretty mixed bag with some songs that we brought back from the archives because we just couldn’t get over the demos, and brand new songs as well,” adds Boyer. “We honestly just went with the songs we thought fit best.”
Moving through all the waves of emotion, “Hello” is the perfect introduction, opening the floodgates of Pillows & Therapy, heavier subjects transposed around euphoric synth and instrumentals spanning the musical therapy session through “Karma,” a jab at people that wronged us, and escaping toxic relationships on “Rehab,” with more reflections on pop-fuzzed “American Dream,” a look at draining self expectations, into “Losing Blood,” and making peace with that you cannot change on closing “C’est la vie.”
Working closely with Olsen, Weathers’ Pillows & Therapy is less doom or gloom and embraces more levity in all the darker spots.
“This [album] has caused us to let loose with our music and have a lot more fun instead of trying to be the dark, edgy, cool kids all the time,” says Boyer. “We wanted to embrace who we were more as people and go from there, resulting in the ‘Kids In The Night’ record having a totally new tune compared to ‘Happy Pills,’ and this new album having an, even more, evolved sound. We are really pushing our limits now.”
Co-written with Tim Pagnotta (Neon Trees), Drew Pearson (Switchfoot, Ke$ha), and Kyle Moorman (P!nk, Elle King), Pillows & Therapy destigmatizes the darker elements of mental health and wanting to “get better” (via therapy), a running thread for the band, who have also partnered with mental health organizations like Jed Foundation, Hot Topic Foundation, and Mental Health America.
“What’s funny is that music was never a conscious choice for spreading the message,” shares Boyer. “Neither was choosing this message to spread when we started the band. We started just making music that felt good to us, and then the fans were the ones who actually took our music and made it something bigger than ourselves, which was very humbling.”
At that point, Boyer decided to champion that message—even pulling a portion of a “Talking Is Hard” lyric, Scared to bleed, pillows, and therapy for the album title—for the fans and because of the increasing role mental health was playing in his own personal life as well.
“The fans in a way gave me a reason to finally freely talk about some of the shit that was going on in my life,” he says. “The big message in this album is all about wanting to improve your mental health—not just spreading awareness, but encouraging people to want to get better or get to a place that’s at least more manageable. It’s ok to not be ok, but it’s never ok to not get help. Therapy is a form of self-improvement and that’s what we are promoting.”
Reflecting on when Weathers formed in 2015, Boyer says he was terrified to be this honest, writing instead around versions of himself he wanted to be or wanted other people to see.
“Over time, I yearned to be more personable,” shares Boyer, “[and] while I still like to write about things that aren’t necessarily about me, I wanted to at least include more truths in my music.”
Pillows & Therapy is a continuing session on self-improvement and accepting the reality of who we are in a more positive light.
“Work on yourself,” says Boyer, “and be the best you can be.”
