Follow Thru have spent the last almost decade building their fanbase and crafting their technical melodic punk sound. 2024 EP Ghosts showed their potential in just under nine minutes. Eat Your Heart Out, their upcoming first full-length, shows that the quintet is ready for the next level.
“Eat Your Heart Out is a much more emotional album than Ghosts was,” says vocalist Ryan O’Keefe. “We needed to take a more mature approach to the whole project.”
The band had one song written when they collectively decided to book studio time with Trevor Reilly (A Wilhelm Scream) at Anchor End Studios to record a full-length, giving themselves close to a year to write and prepare. The hard timeline gave them something to strive for, but also a lot of pressure to reach that goal.
“We stopped playing shows for a bit to focus on writing,” O’Keefe says. “We were about 95% done with writing by then, with everything else coming at the last minute.”
The songwriting system consists of guitarists Ben Allard and Glen Marshall bringing the musical bones to jam on, to decide if it’s worth pursuing. If greenlit, the group works together to tweak and improve parts while O’Keefe writes lyrics.
“When everything gets gummed up, ideas-wise, (bassist) Kelsey Rouine was usually the one who had the thought or idea that brought it all back into working order.”
“Mike Stewart’s just an amazing talent. Folks are just slack-jawed watching that guy play left AND open-handed punk,” says O’Keefe of the band’s drummer. “I had a sound guy approach me after a set, saying he was amazed just watching the drums from his position, hasn’t seen anything like it.”
“I was sweating it out,” O’Keefe says, describing his feelings before recording vocals. “I was changing lyrics and backing vocals to songs during the drive from Providence to New Bedford. It was all on me at that point.”
The result is 12 songs that follow their formula of writing fast songs with an abundance of hooks, energy, and sing-alongs to get the blood pumping. The lyrics are deep with a focus on the appreciative nostalgia of growing up and looking back. The music hits the emotional target with a heavy tone. Yet through it all, there is still an uplifting sense to the album.
“We had our mishaps and hold-ups, and at the end we’re happy with every song individually and the album as a whole,” O’Keefe says of the finished product. “It was great to see the songs really come together piece by piece through the whole process. We think it turned out amazing.”
Follow Thru have been playing a few of the newer tunes at shows since before the recording process started. Their loyal and growing fanbase became familiar with the songs well before they dropped singles “Banner Days” and “This Inevitable Ruin,” a month apart. They plan to release one more song, “The Stars Don’t Shine Like They Used To,” before the full album comes out. The band is waiting for the final cut of the music video at the time of this writing.
“People seem really pumped,” O’Keefe says of the fan reaction thus far. “The response from people who listened has been overwhelmingly positive, and the new songs go over great live too. We’re looking forward to having people sing it back to us the same way they do with Ghosts.”
Being in a band is a huge time commitment. It can be challenging for the five members of Follow Thru to arrange their schedules just to practice, let alone all the behind-the-scenes auxiliary activities that come with being in a band (merch, photo shoots, booking shows, etc). Age and families add to the conundrum, but they carry on for the passion of their music and the love they have for each other.
“It’s going to sound silly, but it’s just another family,” O’Keefe says when asked about his favorite part of the band. “It’s more than just once-a-week practice and shows; our wives and kids hang out, we go out to other bands’ shows. I personally can’t imagine what I’d do if we didn’t have this band.”
Follow Thru are planning two parties to celebrate the release of Eat Your Heart Out. They’re hosting a listening party at Origin Beer Project on September 3, which is the official release date.
“They are brewing a beer for us, which is super sweet of them,” O’Keefe says.
The album release show will be at The Parlour on September 19 with In the Meantime, Static Friction and Worst of All.
“I’m just excited for people to hear the finished product,” O’Keefe says. “We’ve gotten so much support from friends, family, our new label partners in High End Denim Records, I’m going to be so relieved when it’s finally out in the world.”
Follow Thru is hosting a listening party at Origin Beer Project on September 3 and an album release show on September 19 at The Parlour. Visit instagram.com/followthru_ri for more info.