WriteYourOwnStory
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By Tom Lanham photo by Jimmy Fontain
ooks , they say , can be deceiving . Hearing energetic vocalist Aimee Interrupter ricochet through In the Wild — the bracing new fourth album from The Interrupters , the SoCal ska-punk outfit she formed 11 years ago with dub-schooled guitarist Kevin Bivona , now her husband — it ’ s difficult to picture anything but unbridled joy and optimism fueling it . From its coliseum-rousing opening anthem “ Anything Was Better ” through Clash-jagged power-chorders like “ As We Live ,” “ The Hard Way ,” and “ Worst For Me ,” plus a Gospel-passionate “ Burdens ,” an Ennio Morricone-exotic “ Let ‘ Em Go ,” and the more traditional reggae foray “ Kiss the Ground ” — the feel-good collection feels unusually inspired as if the band members were sipping refreshing cocktails on some sunny Caribbean beach between studio takes . The truth , unfortunately , was much darker than that .
When the claustrophobic coronavirus hit , it tested the faith , tenacity , and emotional endurance of just about everyone around the globe . Now , as ebullient efforts like In the Wild appear as if by magic , two years on — and The Interrupters are able to hit the touring trail again to back it ( with Interrupter , nee Allen ) pinballing across stages in her Rosie-the- Riveter , We-can-do-it , do-rag bandanna — many might have forgotten just how terrifying those uncertain early months of 2020 were . Not this vexed vocalist . When lockdown
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kicked in , she had already sunk to a personal rock bottom . And she had nowhere else to go but up . “ I ’ ve struggled with a major depressive disorder for most of my life ,” confesses the Montana-bred Interrupter . Gradually , she says , she had come to accept that it was simply incurable and a burden she would be saddled with forever .
“ And I ’ d tried everything , every kind , every kind of antidepressant to help me , and I just never could get better . And as a lyricist , I really wasn ’ t able to dive too deep into my own story or be too vulnerable because it was kind of scary for me when I was already going through all these things and suffering so much .” The arrival of Covid , of course , made finding a medical solution something of an existential imperative .
As what she now jokingly refers to as a “ hail-mary , last-ditch effort ,” she opted to try TMS Therapy , or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation , a noninvasive new treatment that required no surgery or even the application of electrodes . And granted , the half-helmet patients wear does look a little like Clockwork Orange , but the equipment houses a magnetic coil which , when placed against the forehead , delivers a magnetic pulse that stimulates the nerve cells in brain regions involved in mood control and depression . The desired result is the sparking to life of these areas that typically lay dormant during depression . Sure , it might sound — or even look crazy . But don ’ t knock it , sighs a now-anguish-free Interrupter — TMS , or rTMS , with ‘ r ’ emphasizing the repetitive nature of the prescribed stimulations — actually worked .
“ I just decided to do this therapy during the pandemic ,” says the singer . Initially , each day she went in for TMS , she had to numerically rate how she was feeling , from one to ten , with ten being the most depressed . For a while , it looked fruitless . “ Every single day for weeks , I was 10 — 10 , 10 , 10 , 10 ,” she recalls . “ And then , after several more weeks of therapy , that number gradually came down to a nine , eight , seven , and then on my last day of therapy , I was a two . And I have happily stayed at two ever since then .” She didn ’ t see the unexpected creative bonus TMS would provide : “ It gave me the strength , the emotional ability , and the safe space to be able to write my story and to be able to look at some of the darker things in my life that I wasn ’ t able to look at before — it was honestly too scary and too hard to write my own story and to delve too deep into it . And that ’ s the biggest difference between this record and other music I ’ ve done — I ’ m in a mentally healthier place , more than I ’ ve ever been before .”
Again , a shiny rock ' s steady surface appearances will contrast greatly with what ’ s lurking right beneath , lyrically , on In The Wild , and you ’ d better brace for impact . The composer pulls no autobiographical punches . “ It took me two years to write this song ? I wanted it perfect ,” she sings on “ In the Mirror ,” by way of introduction , and her rejoinder to the title mentioned in “ Anything Was Better ” is “ than where I was from .” And she ’ s not just whistling “ Dixie .” “ And ‘ Anything ’ isn ’ t about location as much as it is circumstances ,” she clarifies . “ So it ’ s not a specific location , although I am from Montana . And other people in Montana might have a great experience there , but my experiences and my circumstances there were really bad , so anything was better . WhichwaswhyImoved — Imovedby myself to Los Angeles when I was 19 years old . I met a band in Montana when they played a little punk club , and they said , “ We live in L . A ., but actually they lived in Orange county , but I said , ‘ I want to move to L . A . and pursue music — can I follow you guys ?’” The group accepted the tagalong , and it wasn ’ t long before the innocent Allen became the Streetsavvy Interrupter . Tiring of life behind the Orange Curtain , she high-tailed it to Los Angeles and immediately to the historic Hollywood sign because she wasn ’ t familiar with any other landmarks . As she stared down at the metropolis , she would one day conquer , she phoned her punk-club bartender buddy back home and asked if he knew any potential contacts in town . Kismet .
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