TOBI OWOLABI
From left, Marty Aubuchon, Blake Mickens and Kelly Franklin of Inches From Glory release their debut album, It Only Gets Better, on Friday.
The forthcoming debut album from three-piece punk band Inches From Glory is many things — a comeback from heartbreak, a love letter to punk, an outlet for healing from mental illness. However, they stipulate, there is one thing the album is not.
It Only Gets Better is absolutely, most definitely, not another “pandemic album.”
“Everybody put one of those out,” says Blake Mickens, the band’s bassist and lead singer. He and guitarist Kelly Franklin then spend a moment mocking Blink 182’s angsty 2020 single, “Quarantine,” which they thought was corny.
“I just went to an open mic night, and like, every old dude sang a guitar song about quarantine,” adds drummer Marty Aubuchon.
Inches From Glory has slowly burrowed its way into St. Louis’ punk scene since forming in 2018. They’ve played at a slew of local venues and put out two EPs. On Friday, the band will release their first album, It Only Gets Better, and they play tonight at the Heavy Anchor.
Their latest EP, Bluer Than the Sky, arrived at the dawn of the pandemic in 2020. Soon after, lockdowns restricted gatherings. Mickens, reeling from a breakup of a long relationship, wrote most of It Only Gets Better in only three months.
It may not be a pandemic album, but Mickens, Franklin and Aubuchon admit that the isolation of the last two years has influenced it.
“The majority of the songs come from a place of heartbreak and the emotional weight I was feeling early in the pandemic,” Mickens says. “It expresses a lot of the feelings we had, that sense of loneliness and purposelessness.”
These types of themes are mainstays in Inches From Glory's music. Mickens founded the band as a senior at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy High School. Their early lyrics gush with teenage angst and existential conflict, as in their 2018 song “Wallflower”: “Everything feels longer when you’re alone/And I can’t relate to these people or this place.”
Yet, their lyrics are also infused with self-deprecating humor and irony. Their songs are quick, upbeat and easy to dance to.
“It sounds energetic and crazy because that’s how you try to feel when you feel like shit,” Aubuchon says.
Aubuchon, Franklin and Mickens, who are each in their 20s, joke and banter like siblings. They are like family, Mickens explains. In recent years, each have been through formative periods in their lives: Mickens, through a tough breakup; Aubuchon, through the death of his father; and Franklin, through her decision to drop out of college.
Their musical upbringings varied widely. Franklin found music through cello in fourth grade and later learned guitar by teaching herself My Chemical Romance songs. Mickens, a self-described “latchkey kid,” took drum lessons in elementary school at the urging of his parents, so he wouldn’t be home alone. He now studies jazz performance at Webster University. For Aubuchon, music was a constant. He grew up in a Catholic family, where his dad conducted their church’s choir and played piano.
Mickens brought the trio together in 2018 after meeting Aubuchon at STL Rock School, where they’re both music instructors. Franklin joined after Mickens noticed her Instagram videos of her rocking guitar covers of Covet, a major influence.
Franklin was mesmerized by Covet’s use of the two-handed tapping technique, a way to play guitar by tapping notes on a fretboard with both hands.
“I was like, ‘What is that? I want to learn that,’” Franklin says. “I started learning those songs, and it transformed my guitar playing.”
Franklin’s musical voice comes through in the band’s more complicated lead lines. She and Aubuchon build on Inches From Glory’s songs after Mickens provides “the meat and bones.”
“I’m always searching for integrity and vulnerability,” Mickens says of his lyrics. “I think it’s a lot easier to write a sad song than it is to write a happy song that will have the same emotional weight.”
It Only Gets Better was originally intended to be a sarcastic critique on optimism. Because, for a while, things didn’t get better; only worse, Mickens says.
Now, after a year of self-care and healing, the title's meaning has changed for him. Maybe it does get kind of better? “But only if you work out, block your ex on social media, start eating right and try to be a better human,” he jokes.
Inches from Glory’s name was meant to signify an ambiguous proximity to something better; it’s unclear whether they’re edging closer or falling farther away. It’s a teeter between hope and hopelessness.
Maybe with this new album, they’ll get a little closer.
It Only Gets Better releases April 22 on all streaming platforms. Catch them live with Safari Room and Pealds at 8 p.m. tonight at The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Avenue, (314) 352-5226, theheavyanchor.com).
