SUBTITLES. TURN EMO CONFESSION INTO A FULL-LENGTH WORLD

subtitles. on is a restless, emotionally exposed debut where pop-punk momentum meets heavier alternative rock and long-distance intimacy

I hear subtitles. on as a record built around the friction between wanting to escape your own head and having nowhere to hide. The Phoenix-based duo of Jake Obermiller and Alexandre Di Pasquale construct that tension with a sharp sense of dynamics. Fast, driving percussion, wide-open guitar lines, and choruses that feel engineered to break through emotional static. Their sound sits in a familiar emotional ecosystem—Hawthorne Heights, Movements, The Story So Far, Basement—but what stands out is how they translate those influences into something that feels diaristic.

It treats emotional states as physical environments. “Reasons To Stay” moves with urgency, almost like it’s trying to outrun collapse, yet lyrically it refuses melodrama in favor of grounded reassurance. The contrast is what makes it land. The body is sprinting while the mind is trying to stabilize. That push-and-pull gives the track its emotional weight.

On the opposite end, “Down Bad In December” slows everything down, and the effect is immediate. The song feels stalled. The arrangement leaves space in a way that makes every lyric linger longer than it should, as if the track itself is stuck replaying a moment it can’t resolve.

Across its 38-minute runtime, subtitles. on maintains a careful sense of pacing. Eleven tracks, most hovering around the three-minute mark, create a structure that feels intentional. Songs like “Floating Down” and “Reasons To Stay” are allowed to expand just enough to breathe without losing urgency.

With JoJo Centineo, Neil Engle, and Kris Crummett involved, the record achieves a polished, modern sheen keeping its emotional edges. The guitars remain sharp, the drums hit with controlled intensity, and the vocals sit forward in the mix in a way that keeps men uncomfortably close to the narrative.

Ultimately, subtitles. on works because it understands emotional overstimulation as a theme. It’s a record about trying to translate internal chaos into something legible. Something you can read, replay, and maybe survive.

Interview with subtitles.

(•)> The title subtitles. on suggests translation, interpretation, or emotional filtering. What does “subtitles” represent in the context of the album’s narrative?

(•)> The project was developed over several years between Arizona and France through remote collaboration. How did that physical distance shape the emotional tone of the writing?

(•)> “Midwest Home” opens the record. What emotional or narrative function did you want that track to serve as the entry point?

(•)> “Reasons To Stay” moves at 159 BPM but deals with grounding, reassurance, and emotional survival. Was the decision to pair urgency with stability intentional from the start?

(•)> The contrast between “Reasons To Stay” (159 BPM) and “Down Bad In December” (106 BPM) feels structural, almost like two emotional states of the same mind. Did you design that contrast as a conceptual spine for the album?

(•)> “Down Bad In December” feels like emotional inertia—less about expression and more about being stuck inside a moment. How did the slower tempo influence the way you wrote and delivered the lyrics?

(•)> “Used You” and “Wasted Time” sit in a transitional space between those emotional extremes. What role do they play in the album’s psychological arc?

(•)> The title track turns “subtitles. on” into a repeated hook-like phrase. What does that phrase mean to you beyond its literal interpretation—does it represent distance, clarity, distortion, or something else?

(•)> “Kama Sutra” and “Funny” introduce tonal shifts that feel more outward-facing and expressive. How important was it to avoid the album becoming emotionally monochromatic?

(•)> With JoJo Centineo, Neil Engle, and Kris Crummett all contributing to production, how did each of them influence the final sonic identity of the record?

(•)> Your influences include Hawthorne Heights, Movements, The Story So Far, and Basement. Which of those influences do you feel is most embedded in the emotional DNA of subtitles. on, and which one do you think listeners might miss on first listen?

(•)> After a three-year writing process shaped by distance and iteration, what part of subtitles. on feels most like the “core truth” of the band moving forward?

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out subtitles. on the Pigeon Opinion Playlist