Los Angeles-based band CODE:WORDS has quickly gained the attention they deserve from a unique blend of electronic elements, metalcore, and introspective lyricism. Their latest release, "All Consuming," emphasizes a balance of atmospheric soundscapes while adding themes of vulnerability and a deep emotional resonance to the storytelling. "All Consuming' is about struggling with the realization that you can't save someone who doesn't want to save themselves," highlighted by vocalist John Dillion.
The track follows up with their previous single "Limerence" and proves that the band is only just getting started with what's to come on any upcoming music in the future. Code:Words includes frontman John Dillion, Garrett Lowery, and Max Codoceo. I recently had the chance to chat with John and Max about their track "All Consuming" and what they are looking forward to the most in the upcoming year. Here's what they had to say.
You formed in 2023 but have already built a strong following. What do you think has resonated most with listeners so quickly?
John: "That's a great question, and I would love to know from a fan's perspective. Hopefully, it's the amount of time and effort we've put into crafting the songs that has helped. I think, hopefully, some of it's coming from people connecting lyrically with things that I've written about. Those are the points you want when you're making music. You want people to connect with lyrics and the overall vibe. I don't think it's very much our image by any means. Hopefully, it's the music that matters most."
Max: "I can chime in because I joined the band not too long ago, so things were already released by then. When I heard it, at least for me, the music, for one, was what sold it. It was the mixing styles. You've got some poppier elements, you've got some heavier elements, and you're blending them all together really cohesively. I think for me also, when I listen to a song like "Complicated" and I hear the vocals, I pay attention to the lyrics as well. That one in particular resonated really hard. I was like, "Oh my God, this is amazing." So I became a fan before I joined the band, and that was the best of both worlds right there for me."
John: "That's cool. I've always known that you liked that song, but I never asked you about it. Do you connect with those lyrics, or is it just that song is a favorite for you, like, "Yeah, I fuck with it."?"
Max: "Both. Yeah, just the chorus alone, it just hits. I feel like it may not have been the same feelings for me compared to someone else, but that one just hit right away the second I heard it. The music is pretty sweet already, but the vocals and lyrics are just the perfect cherry on top."
John: "Thanks, man. That's cool!"
How has signing with The Artery Foundation impacted your creative direction or opportunities so far?
John: "I don't think it's impacted our creative direction at all. They kind of knew what they were getting into when they signed us, and they wanted to just set us loose and let us do our thing while helping us along the way. But as far as opportunities, it's like night and day. I felt like we were kind of screaming into the void before, whereas, as soon as they've come on, they've given us a lot of validity and put us in front of people. Getting on Octane was a huge thing for us, and they've continued to put us in front of the right people, and the doors just keep swinging open in a way that it hadn't the previous two years. So I mean, we all feel super lucky to be involved, and the team we're putting together is just making me so excited for the future."
Your latest single "All Consuming" touches on the experience of pouring everything into someone who isn't ready to help themselves. What led you to explore that theme at this point in time?
John: "For me, it was coming from the angle of my family. My immediate family, there are a few members of our immediate family that are takers for sure. This is something I haven't shared with anyone yet, but it's from the perspective of my mom. My mom has this big heart, and she's getting older, and my perspective is that, "Hey, we should be taking care of you now. You raised us, and it's our turn to help you out." But. there are some members of my family who are still really leaning on her, and it stresses me out and it makes me upset. A lot of times she has to lean on me, so then the whole family's leaning on me. So I think that was kind of the perspective that I was writing it from, but I quickly realized, even in my own life, that it resonates when it comes to a lot of different types of relationships, friendships, obviously family, and personal relationships too."
John continues: "I've been there as well. So as soon as I was writing it, I was like, "Man, I can apply this to a lot." And it applied to some of the members of the band. They had some things that happened pretty much immediately after we wrote that song that was like, "Oh, wow, I didn't realize I was writing this about you, but man, that really all just lines right up." So I think I got lucky writing from experience and then realizing afterwards that it was like, man, this applies to so much."
How do you navigate translating such a personal conflict into something listeners can connect to?
John: "I think it's just being honest. If you try to think too much and too hard about what somebody else might think when they hear something, you're not being honest with yourself. It's also probably more cloudy and harder for somebody else to relate to. But if I were just writing from my experience and how I was feeling or how I feel like my mom feels in that situation, then I think it comes across a little cleaner. So I try not to worry too much about how it's translating and just try to be real with myself and my emotions and just hope that other people get it."
Max: "Oh, yeah. To add onto that, I think the more honest you are, the more personal you are. People will relate to those lyrics in their own way, but they'll still hit just as hard, and it'll resonate way more too."
John: "It's a hard thing as a singer or a lyricist to get vulnerable. You're airing your own dirty laundry to some degree and even talking about it right now. That's not something that even Max really knows about or my closest friends. I don't really talk to them about the interpersonal drama of my family. It takes a little bit of courage to dig deep into those emotional pockets of your life and put them out there for people, but it's really cathartic and is helpful when you're like, "Hey, I want to make this song hit and I want it to resonate." So it's just part of the game, I guess, when you're trying to do what we're doing."
In what ways does "All Consuming" differ from your previous release, "Limerence?"
John: "It's definitely on the poppier side. We've been really intentional with the most recent releases and previous releases and trying to be as dynamic as we can with our sound. A lot of bands write the same song over and over again, or they get really popular for a certain thing and then when they try to evolve, their fan base doesn't like that. So we were trying to future-proof ourselves and write things that are all over the spectrum so that our fans can expect a wide variety of things and it doesn't box us in the future. So with that one, we intentionally were like, "All right, let's write a really high-energy, poppy, fun melodies, lighter with not as much screaming, not so much breakdown stuff." It has a really heavy, good, impactful, emotional moment in the bridge, but the rest of the song is really bubblegum and fun."
John continues: "Obviously, lyrically, maybe not so much, but the overall vibe of the song. So, I think that was our plan. So, "Limerence" was definitely kind of down the middle. It had a little bit of both. It has a screamy breakdown; it has some heavy riffs. Then, the next song that we're going to go work on right now is going to be a lot heavier than the previous two. We did that with as much intention as possible so that we could showcase all the different sounds that we want to take into consideration in the future."
What was the biggest challenge while writing "All Consuming"?
John: "I think it was probably just diving into myself to figure out what it was I wanted to say. A lot of the times, like I said, it's cathartic. It's like therapy where I sometimes don't realize how I feel about something until I start to try to put it into words. Actually, I can share a really funny story about the lyrics of this song. So I share all my music with my mom. She lives in Kansas, so I don't get to see her very often, but she's my biggest fan and has been since day one. I'll send her songs just anytime we have a new demo or, "Hey, this is what we did today," or things like that. She loves to hear it. Typically she'll be like, "Oh, what are you saying in that part or whatever?" So I sent her the song, and then underneath I sent her the lyrics, and all she saw was the lyrics to the song, which the opening of the song is "holding you up and holding me back". She didn't realize that I had sent a song, and she thought that I was saying those words to her. So, like I said, because everyone leans on her, she leans on me a lot, and I end up paying a lot of bills and cleaning a lot of messes."
John continues: "Again, from my perspective, it's kind of my duty as a son to do that for my mom. She's, like I said, getting up there in age. She was devastated. She told me she read the lyrics and thought it was what I was saying to her and was crying, and she didn't respond to me until the next day. I was like, "Did you get the song? What do you think? I mean, I'm really excited about this one. I thought you'd have something to say." And she was like, "What song?" So I was like, "I sent you the song. Did you not see it?" She was like, "Oh my God, I didn't see that it was a song. I thought you just sent me that message and you were upset at me." So, yeah, that was actually probably the biggest challenge. I felt devastated that I made my mom cry with these lyrics, and then I had to explain, "No, these are for you, not to you. This is how you should feel towards everyone else taking advantage of your big heart." So that was kind of an interesting thing that happened with the song for sure."
How did the production process come together? Was it a fully collaborative effort or did the song originate from one person's ideas?
John: "It was pretty collaborative. So, for the last two singles we've done, we've worked with a new producer. His name's Elliot Polikoff, an amazing guy. And before that, we had worked with Hiram Hernandez pretty exclusively. So the process on these ones started with going to Elliot's; we wrote kind of bare-bones instrumentals that I then went and wrote all the lyrics and melody to. We recorded all the vocals with Elliot. That's his strong suit, and we bounce off each other in such a great way and come up with cool things. So, we did the vocals and the lyrics there, and then we took what we had with Elliot and we went to Hiram, and then we reproduced all the instruments behind it and put it all together. I mean, it's a little bit of a tedious process because we're having to do multiple sessions, but I think the songs that are coming out of it are awesome, some of the best we've ever done, so I love it. I love the process."
As you look toward future releases, what new sonic textures or lyrical themes are you hoping to explore?
John: "This next one, like I said, is a lot heavier. It has almost a nu-metal vibe to it. It certainly has verses of something that you could rap to. We aren't going that route because I'm not the guy for that, but it was a new challenge to take elements we hadn't used and just an overall vibe that we hadn't done yet and still try to make it code:words. So, we've come up with some stuff that I'm really excited to lay down tonight. It's going to be pretty different than the last one, but hopefully in a really cool, fun way.
Max: "Oh yeah, and I think also, it's like we're constantly trying to better ourselves musically, so we're going to take inspiration from everyday life and other things we hear, even if it's not in the same style, but we like it. You hear this one pop song and you're like, man, that little chord thing they did there was really sweet, or that beat they did there was really cool. We'll say something like, "How can we start emulating some of those sounds and using them in our stuff?" I think you can really see that in this new song, like John was saying. It has sounds we haven't used in a CODE:WORDS song before, and now it's going to be in there. So, it's very exciting, and it constantly makes you want to just keep pushing the boundaries of where we're going to go."
What's something fans can look forward to from you in the year ahead?
John: "We're definitely going to get on the road here in hopefully the next couple of months. This summer, we have some things in the works, more music, got some kind of backend things to work out as far as labels and things like that. But yeah, I hope that everyone gets ready to hear a lot more from us and that we're a lot more present in the scene. We're just trying to grow this thing as big as we can and be out there and doing as much as we can. So, definitely look out for that."
Is there anything else that you would like to share before we end off here?
John: "We're just grateful. We're grateful to finally be making some headway and talking to people like you. The fact that people are listening a lot more now is so, so cool. As an artist, you put a lot of yourself into whatever you're doing, and like I said, for a long time, it felt like we were putting in all this effort and nobody was hearing it. That felt like, man, if people could just hear it and really listen, they would appreciate what we're doing, and in the last couple of months, we've seen that happening more. It's an amazing feeling to get something back for what you've put out into the world. So we're just really grateful and excited to keep pushing."
Max: "Yep, exactly that. Just thankful and keep checking out the music and the socials. Follow us all there for all the new stuff, and it's exciting though. Very, very excited."
