A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Before You Get Broken LP by Guest Directors. It has often been said that a band’s debut album is intended to introduce that band to the world – but their sophomore release is more for the band itself. It might come from a desire to push boundaries or simply to establish that the band in question is capable of doing more than just reproducing the strengths that their debut album presented, but it can easily be said that a band’s sophomore album is often a significant reaction to what came before it – in one way or another. That logic definitely feels like it holds up when one listens to Before You Get Broken, Guest Directors’ sophomore LP; when the band released Interference Patterns in 2023, much was made about the fact that the group featured members of well-established acts like TAD and Chinchilla and featured a rocky, guitar-focused sound similar to the same – but even a cursory listen proved that there might be more things at work beneath the surface than just an expression of musicianship by well-established musicians, removed from the context which brought them acclaim. With the pressure to prove themselves now off though, Guest Directors have returned with a new album which doesn’t try to do the same thing twice at all – in fact, this time, singer/guitarist Julie D. takes both the reigns and the mic (her voice is more prominent on Before You Get Broken) and steers the band in a much dreamier and melodic direction.
As soon as stylus catches groove on the A-side of Before You Get Broken, the change in both sound and style is simply impossible to miss. Right away, icy and effects-frosted guitars replace the rockier, more straightforward designs that dominated the songs on Interference Patterns, and the overall impression left is one which implies a completely different instrumental tone; where Guest Directors once aimed to establish and present a hard and rocky sound, the goal here appears to be to lay out something that is more texturally focused. In addition, while Gary Thorstensen used to split vocal duties with singer/guitarist Julie D., she has stepped forward into a much more centrally focused location in the music. Here, D. places herself within the mix (not above or outside of it) between the chilly instrumental atmospherics, and splits her time sliding with them or letting them slip easily past her – but she doesn’t try to warm them at all. The result is pretty remarkable; lines like, “Move with the tides/ Once I swam with grace/ But now I walk on knives/ The rain fell away/ The difference feels so strange” do not point directly at any one subject in particular, but they do give listeners the opportunity to paint the image that the lyrics lead them to, with their own imaginations. That not-so-obvious bait proves to be just exactly what listeners need to get them locked into the experience and what easily spurs them along to continue, as well – when “Meet You On The Land” fades to a close.
After its opening cut sets most of the precedents for Before You Get Broken, the album continues fleshing out its form, in earnest – but not at all in the same way that the band assembled its debut. On “You Are Never,” for example, Guest Directors leave their overdrive pedals un-stomped – but listeners will still be able to feel the energy in the cut increase as the tempo steps up and the inherent excitement of lyrics like, “You can make believe/ Or you can make it real” flows forth, brilliantly. The power there is fantastic and quickly turns exhilarating as listeners realize that the band is using none of the conventional means to make it feel the way it does; not with volume, not with distortion, not with a series of most rock stars’ favorite four-letter words – no, the energy and power here simply comes from the band’s presence, as well as how they choose to present themselves. The result is fantastic, of course, and sustains the song beautifully – “Now I Know” keeps running through the icy power of its predecessors as well as sneaking in some Police-y energy which shades the running really well before “Just Not Today” recalls the power, guitar performance of Interference Patterns as well as bringing Gary Thorstensen back to the mic for the first time since Interference Patterns too. Reading how that comes across in print might come off as being stacked a little awkwardly, but the fact is that each cut presents a different set of variables really clearly and plays out wonderfully, which means that every time the band changes up its’ form, listeners find they have to re-establish a new balance. As difficult as it might seem to be, that balance rings through beautifully as soon as “So Many Somedays” enters gently to close the A-side. There, Guest Directors quickly establish a great sense of ambience with the inclusion of some warm major chords as well as some very unusual added instrumentation (including what sounds like a harpsichord?) in the mix, all balanced by a truly gorgeous vocal performance from Julie D. The result is a genuinely lush composition which stands miles from what listeners expect from a band who first gained prominence as a guitar-rock group, but no one listening will complain at all – until the cut begins to fade and listeners recall that the sides of Before You Get Broken will need changing. They’ll do their duty quickly, of course, because they’ll be hoping to keep the energy which powered the A-side rolling seamlessly through the B-.
As smoothly as listeners may have hoped the transition might happen between the A- ans B-sides of Before You Get Broken though, they’ll find that their senses are shaken quite a bit as needle catches groove and “Restore Your Soul” kicks the movement off. There, growling and doubled guitars are guaranteed to make listeners blink while Thorstensen recaptures the mic armed with a lyric sheet about losing control that he delivers – very drowsily. As a whole, the song plays like the dictionary definition of an album cut (which would probably play better on CD because it could blend better with the other songs – instead of getting added focus as the first song on a new side), but the side is completely redeemed and the energy is quickly reset with “Blame Pandora,” which sees the band return to a smoother and dreamier form. Throughout the song, Rian Turner’s drums sparkle as polyrhythms keep listeners looking for an easy entry point and, while the guitars in the song are slick and easy to appreciate, the song as a whole is really self-contained; it’s only when the energy increases and the guitars begin to clip during the song’s bridge that the play begins to unravel a little, but it tightens up again before the cut closes and ends up finishing really well. After that, “At The Gate” makes the most of its mid-tempo movement and Thorstensen’s very indie-identified vocal performance (read: the lyrics keep to a very simple melody) as well as the single greatest guitar solo on the whole record before finally closing the record with the epic, indie by way of classic rock exercise which is “What Shapes They Take.” There, the band really takes a surprising turn as Thorstensen adds an effect which nearly makes his guitar sound like a sitar and Julie D. advises listeners to not fight the form they’re trying and just let it wash over them. Those listeners who re wise enough to take the singer’s advice will find that they’re warmed by it and don’t even notice that it’s the longest song on the record. In fact, listeners will find that when they give themselves to it, they’ll be sorry and maybe even a little embittered to hear it fade out because, by then, they’ll find that they would have been hoping for more no matter when the album closed.
After having run front-to-back with Before You Get Broken, listeners will find that they’ve been given a new appreciation for Guest Directors. True, when Interference Patterns was released, it found an audience and did so understandably – but Before You Get Broken proves that it can not only satisfy that audience, it is also capable of winning one of a completely different sort as well. In that regard, Guest Directors prove that they are a band of a completely different sort from their peers, and deserve to be judged as a completely unique, autonomous entity. For that reason too, those who are won by Before You Get Broken would be wise to find whatever the band does next with no hard and fast ideas about any one particular type of sound they might use – Before You Get Broken stands as proof that Guest Directors deserves to get a much more open mind than many of their peers. [Bill Adams]
Further Reading:
Ground Control Magazine – Vinyl Vlog 623 – Guest Directors – Interference Patterns LP
Artist:
https://www.guestdirectors.com/
https://guestdirectors.bandcamp.com
https://ampwall.com/a/guestdirectors
https://tidal.com/artist/8021749
https://www.instagram.com/guestdirectors
https://www.facebook.com/guestdirectors
Album:
Before You Get Broken will be released on May 1, 2026 on Topsy Records. The nine-song record is now available for pre-order (on vinyl, CD, and digital). Order it here on Guest Directors’ official bandcamp page.
