Common Sage

Emotional Post-Hardcore - Brooklyn, NY

Common Sage are a band that are informed by the past while tirelessly reaching toward an unknown future. Since forming in 2018 in Brooklyn, New York, the group—vocalist/guitarist Julian Rosen, drummer Chris Todd, bassist Steve Keely and guitarist Bryan Louie—have been honing their emotional brand of post-hardcore which was influenced by acts like Thursday and My Chemical Romance, while carefully crafting their own sound that’s influenced by everyone from Cap’n Jazz to The Blood Brothers. “There are so many cool things happening with this band recently after what feels like a long time,” Rosen explains. This inevitably includes the band’s latest release, The Nostros I Algos EP, which features collaborations with emo royalty such as Jason Gleason (Further Seems Forever), Geoff Rickly (Thursday) and Steve Pedulla (Thursday) and was produced/engineered and mixed by Brett Romnes (I Am The Avalanche, Crime In Stereo.)

“Our manager Michael Dubin was friends with [the Thursday] guys and got Steve to come into the studio with us to play guitar on ‘Edin’ and Geoff recorded the vocals at home,” Rosen says. “We recently played a show with Geoff and got to play the song together and also somehow convinced both of them to shoot the video with us in New Jersey, which was really cool.” The video—which features plenty of Instagram-friendly (and creepy) facial filters—is an excellent encapsulation of Common Sage’s sound, which includes soaring choruses, contemplative verses and infectious melodies that will ring in listeners’ collective consciousness well after the needle on the record player stops. “Most of our songs [for the EP] were done already when I wrote ‘Edin’,” he adds. “I think of that song as a pop song almost because it’s really short and it’s verse-chorus-verse.” However there is a power in the simplicity of the track and the way that Common Sage make it their own that is only heightened by the well-placed cameos.

The same can be said of the EPs other track “Hiraeth,” which features Gleason and displays Common Sage’s more dreamy, hypnotic side. “Jason is an amazing vocalist and he sounds amazing on that song,” Rosen says. However, maybe more impressive is the way that Rosen is able to hold his own alongside musicians who have influenced Common Sage’s sound in such a tangible way. “I listen to a lot of music and I’m ultimately just trying to make music that I would want to hear,” Rosen responds when asked about the way the band are able to craft their signature sound. “When I listen to something and I feel like it’s missing a part or something, I’m attempting to fill those holes.” That authentic sense of creativity is evident on the band’s songwriting as well as their live shows, which are teeming with electric energy.

This quest to create something vital is paralleled in Rosen’s lyric writing process, which sees him digging into the meaning and message he is conveying. “I’ll usually start out with an idea and then I’ll hyper focus on it,” he explains. “It can start out with some random, obscure-sounding sentences and then I start piecing things together and changing certain words and try to find the deeper meaning in that.” This process often has powerful results as evidenced on the Modest Mouse-inspired song “Think About The Desert” from their 2021 full-length It Leaves and It Breathes, which details the complicated dynamics of interpersonal relationships in a way that transcends musical genres. Ultimately that mix of honesty and vulnerability is what lies at the core of Common Sage’s music—and, on the flipside, it’s also the reason why they don’t have a lot of peers when it comes to fitting in with other acts in their genre.

“I don’t feel like there is a real scene in Brooklyn and the only active band that I can relate to is Stay Inside,” Rosen admits. “When I think of a scene, I think of a place like Long Island where kids want to go out and listen to music and it’s not as saturated in New York.” That said, if any band can find a way to catalyze a new generation of post-hardcore, it’s Common Sage. The band’s momentum hasn’t only caught the attention of industry tastemakers and their musical heroes, it’s also created a buzz that seems to get audibly louder with every new song that they release and each new fan they win over.