Often times, the best emo takes widely-experienced personal struggles and opens up about them in a cracking, upper register that begs to be scream-sung along to. For over a decade, Free Throw have been a band that does that, and their fifth LP Lessons That We Swear to Keep is one of their strongest examples of this yet. Vocalist Cory Castro tackles mental health struggles, addiction, existential crises, balancing a relationship with tour life, parasocial relationships, and the very concept of dealing with/singing about the same issues year after year. You don’t need to have had the exact same experiences as him to feel what he’s saying and apply it to your own life, and the explosive energy behind all of these songs really invites you to get up, move around, and join in.
For a much deeper dive into this album, Cory has given us an extensive track-by-track breakdown of the full thing. Read on for what he had to say, and catch Free Throw on tour with Prince Daddy & the Hyena and Charmer (including NYC’s LPR on 11/4 with additional support from Saturdays At Your Place). All dates below.
A Quick Overview
The best way I can describe the record as a whole is that it’s a record about life. To be more specific it’s a record about someone in the growing stages of adulthood and coming to terms with the experience of life. I know that sounds very vague and generic, but it’s the best way I can describe the record as a whole. To be honest it is really sort of a diary of my experiences over the past few years. I tried my best to take my own situations and make them as relatable and “self-insertable” as I could, but this record is honestly a very personal one. With that being said, let’s get into the tracks:
“A Part Is Better Than Zero”
This song is about how getting older sometimes leads to regretting that you didn’t do more with your life. When doing that you tend to just brush off your actual accomplishments. I think in a way it’s just typical human nature to be your own worst critic. The internal struggle of feeling like you wasted a lot of time and actually realizing that you’ve actually accomplished more than you give yourself credit for is a struggle I think a lot of people my age can relate to. The song also touches on how I’ve spent the last decade just telling people about my issues and sometimes I should really appreciate myself more than I do.
“Spacer’s Choice”
Spacer’s Choice is one of those songs that’s really fun melodically with a really dark meaning. The song is about how the issues I’ve touched on over the years aren’t just “solvable” problems. They tend to persist and rear their ugly head all of the time. Being in a band that has lasted over a decade and has developed a pretty large catalogue of music and being someone who writes about my real life, I find myself writing about the same things a lot because they are my real issues. This has lead to criticism in the past (which is fine, it doesn’t bother me). This song is kind of my response to that and served as a fun and “meta” (in a way) scenario to express that feeling. I know I write about a lot of the same issues, but hey, those problems don’t just go away. Lyrics and music are my outlet at the end of the day.
“Replacing Leene’s Bell”
Touring and being in a relationship can be extremely hard. Being away from the ones you love for long periods of time can really throw a wrench in the works of maintaining that spark, you know? This song is about how the whirlwinds of my career caused me to not be the best communicator in my relationship, and how when realizing that I needed to take accountability and admit that I should have been better about it. It’s a pretty straightforward song. (Side note: the album title came from the lyrics to this song. Though I guess in a way as an album title they serve a more grand and overarching meaning.)
“The Museum of Orphaned Concepts”
This song is about how sometimes the things you strive for have side effects that you weren’t necessarily prepared for. In my case being a known musician and someone who writes about their life experiences all the time, means living in front of people to a certain extent. Years of bearing your soul publicly can really start to feel like you are some kind of exhibit in a museum, I guess. With something like music which persists for a long time if not forever, you can also start to feel like some old artifact that is exhumed, studied, and buried away over and over again. I think this also applies to a lot of other things besides my life, though. People make mistakes, and other people will almost always tend to reference you for your mistakes no matter how big or small. Even in just everyday life. “Oh, You don’t want to let Joe cook your pasta. He overcooked my noodles one time and it was awful.” I know that’s a lighthearted and random example but I think it gets the point across.
“So Yeah, So”
As someone who has dealt with mental health issues, alcoholism, and other problems, I always noticed when someone was “walking on eggshells” around me when I was trying to get better. Basically treating me like I was fragile and only telling me what they thought I wanted to hear. It felt like I was some kind of bomb they were trying to avoid setting off. When in reality what I needed was for people to be open and honest, to say what they meant. This song is kind of an open letter to the people who have done that to me or are currently doing that to anyone in their lives. The lyric “when did scars become a sign of something not built to last” still really sticks with me. I think that our scars should show our toughness and survivability, not be a reflection of our weaknesses.
“Thanks For Asking”
This song is about parasocial relationships and how people’s perceived idea of someone they don’t actually know can sometimes be a detriment to that person. As the singer and lyricist of a band I find myself in situations quite often where I have to be welcoming and friendly to everyone I meet, even if my mood isn’t particularly welcoming and friendly that day. You don’t want people to think of you as an asshole, you know? It gets to a point where people expect you to be this perfect idea of who they think you are and sometimes the pressure of that can be crushing and overwhelming. I like to think that I am usually a very fun and welcoming person regardless but everyone has bad days. It sucks when those bad days happen and you have to gather yourself and pretend they don’t. I just really wanted this song to at least give people an idea of the other side of the coin. At the end of the day, even your favorite artists are just a person. Simple as that.
“Into the Wind Stream”
Sometimes, when you are really going through it, you forget that the rest of the world doesn’t just stop. I feel like humans have a very individualistic mentality on life because we experience things in a very individualized way. The other side of that is that other people aren’t going through “it” at that point in time, their world keeps on moving. LIFE keeps on moving. Just because you had to slow down for a second doesn’t mean that everything else did, as well. This was a realization that really helped me through a lot of things. Sometimes I would hit a personal milestone with my mental health, and I would be stoked, only to realize that there was no applause or big party to celebrate. Everyone else had their own problems and lives. It bummed me out at first and made me feel like no one cared, but once I came to terms with it, I felt like I understood life a little bit more. This song has layers, and it is kind of hard to explain, but I think the song itself gets the point across better than I can by rambling on.
“Joy Ephemeral”
Every now and then, something small will give you this brief moment of euphoria. Sometimes I see my cat stretch with one leg at a time instead of the “BIG stretch” that cats tend to do. It fills me with utter joy for no good reason. I think it’s because he’s the only cat I know that does this. Then a few seconds later I have forgotten that it even happened and I’m back to business as usual. This song is about moments like that but on a grander scale. Those moments where you feel so good and at peace but you know they are just a fleeting moment of joy. In the moment you just want it to last, but then eventually, it fades. Bittersweet. But sweet, nonetheless.
“Cinnabar Island”
This is quite literally a song about being indecisive on what to eat leading to an existential crisis. An internal dialogue/adventure leading into a dream of being stranded out at sea. This song is kind of a mash-up of a few experiences I have had with existential anxiety over the years made into one cohesive story. Sometimes something as mundane as food can get your thoughts racing into oblivion. It kind of speaks for itself. This song was a wild and fun ride to write and watch come together.
“Tips For Safe Travels”
Our song “Tips Are Appreciated”, from our EP “Swig”, was from the perspective of my late cat and best buddy, Tip. Two years ago, after finishing our last album, I came home and spent a day with Tip before he unexpectedly took a turn for the worse and we had to rush him to the emergency animal hospital. He sadly passed away that night, and it was one of the hardest experiences with loss I have had to date. Tip was my best friend and my every day companion. He struggled with a lot of health issues over the years, but we thought he was on the up until that night. With how big of an impact he had on my life, and how much of a loss I felt when he passed, I knew going into this record that I needed to write about it. Still, I wanted to write about it in a way that other people may be able to take their experiences with loss and relate to the song. I tried my best, and I hope somewhere out there Tippy approves.
“What Comes Around Is All Around”
This is the final, let’s bring it all together and sum up what we’ve learned track. On our last LP, “Piecing It Together”, I finished the album by saying that life is just “ups and downs”. Over the years since, I have come to realize that we spend a lot more time in-between those “ups and downs” than we do actually experiencing them. I found an odd sense of comfort in this. I’ve started to feel like we don’t have to let the extremes of life define who we are, and that’s exactly what this song is about. Sometimes the extreme highs and lows can really tire you out, and it’s nice to just find solace in the middle ground.
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Free Throw / Prince Daddy & The Hyena / Charmer — 2023 Tour Dates
w/ saturdays at your place (10/27-11/15) / Blvck Hippie (11/17-12/2):
Oct 27 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm
Oct 28 – Orlando, FL – Level 13 Event Center
Oct 29 – Gainesville, FL – THE FEST
Oct 30 – Charlotte, NC – The Underground
Nov 1 – Washington, DC – Black Cat
Nov 2 – Philadelphia, PA – Brooklyn Bowl
Nov 3 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
Nov 4 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
Nov 5 – Boston, MA – Royale
Nov 7 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
Nov 9 – Lansing, MI – Grewal Hall at 224
Nov 10 – Columbus, OH – Skully’s Music Diner
Nov 11 – Bloomington, IL – The Castle Theatre
Nov 12 – Madison, WI – Majestic Theatre
Nov 14 – Denver, CO – The Oriental Theater
Nov 15 – Salt Lake City, UT – Soundwell
Nov 17 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
Nov 18 – Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre
Nov 20 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
Nov 21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater
Nov 22 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile Theater
Nov 24 – Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live
Nov 25 – Dallas, TX – Trees
Nov 26 – Oklahoma City, OK – Beer City Music Hall
Nov 28 – Kansas City, MO – Recordbar
Nov 29 – Springfield, MO – The Riff
Nov 30 – Memphis, TN – Black Lodge
Dec 1 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
Dec 2 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East