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Chris Conley's lyrics come from a dark, horrible, almost unbearably depressing place. It's called New Jersey.
OK, that's harsh. But there's no doubt that growing up in the Garden State had a profound effect on the frontman of rising emo-punk stars Saves the Day.
"You're kind of stuck in the middle in New Jersey," explains the Princeton native from a tour stop in Portland. "You're in between New York and Philadelphia, but there's no major cities in New Jersey. There's nowhere to go and nothing to do.
"And it's a fairly affluent state. So you've got poor kids growing up next to millionaires. My friends and I were the outcasts. We didn't live in the mansions. We were the ones looking through the gates and talking into the little boxes. After a while, you start to wonder about the inequality. And you get kinda frustrated. And then you gotta vent."
He's not the first; these days New Jersey has gained a reputation as Ground Zero for emo thanks to native sons like My Chemical Romance, Thursday and the legendary Lifetime, who Conley reverently calls "the most influential group of my life."
But when it comes to venting, even they can't hold a candle to the grim tales of suicidal depression and self-mutilation the 26-year-old singer presents on his band's powerful fifth album Sound the Alarm. "I took a wrench to my chest, cracked all my ribs / Let the blood run over my hands," is a typical line. "I'm a danger to myself," could be his motto.
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Talking to Conley, though, you quickly realize the difference between the artist and his art.
"I consider myself a pretty normal person," he says amiably. "I'm happy most of the time. But I'm also a sensitive human being, like everybody. And sometimes I need to vent the darker elements of my soul because if I keep them in, there's a chance I'll boil over and explode internally.
"To me, that's just being human -- having moments of desperation when you think you can't go on. I think the things I'm talking about on the record are things that everybody feels but might be too afraid to say. But they're things I've learned just trying to survive."
Something else the band has learned: How to balance Conley's bleak worldview with sharply crafted, almost poppishly upbeat songs. That juxtaposition is just one of the reasons why Sound the Alarm has been making a big noise for the nine-year-old group.
"We're pretty lucky," says Conley, who started his first band at 13 and has never had a regular job. "We're having a pretty good time with it. And we're still the most normal guys on the block."
Of course, that depends where your block is.
Saves the Day return to Winnipeg for their first show in six years tonight at The Venue. Ontario's Moneen and Philadelphia's Circa Survive open the show.
Tickets are $23 at Ticketmaster.