With their new album In Another Life dropping March 27 via SoundOn, the Salt Lake City indie-rock outfit Krooked Kings step into a leaner, sharper, more emotionally direct era, where vulnerability is what it’s all about and authenticity is more important than the algorithm. Recorded with producer Yves Rothman (Blondshell, Yves Tumor), the album feels like a band choosing evolution over comfort and fleshing out a confident new sound that’s geared towards the live experience. The five-piece, consisting of Oli Martin (vocals, guitar), Paul Colgan (guitar), Dave Macey (keys), Matt Monosson (bass), and Quinn Casper (drums), is building something that feels less like a product cycle and more like a living thing, messy, honest, and very much alive. Kicking off this Spring, their In Another Life Tour will take them to Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern on April 14. I was able to chat with the guys about their new album, vulnerability in their music, upcoming and more.
JG: In Another Life is framed as an album about the gap between who you are and who you want to be. What version of yourselves did you have to unlearn to make this record?
Paul Colgan: That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. I feel like the process of change for me as a person has never really been about unlearning that previous self, more just accepting it and figuring out how you can mould that part of yourself that you might not be as happy with into something that you are happy with.
Oli Martin: Yeah. I think a lot of it is looking at where you expect to be versus where you are. Music came into my life later. When I was younger, I think the path I envisioned for myself was maybe one that was more societal, and I guess, quote-unquote, “normal” or something, if there is a normal. But… I think starting to get old and still chasing a dream, that becomes more vulnerable because it’s maybe less accepted. I think it’s a lot of shedding that old skin and coming into your new skin. A part of that for us was just writing about it and having songs that encapsulated that.
JG: How has your relationship to youth, nostalgia, and identity evolved as the band’s audience has grown with you? Like, as you’re getting older, I’m sure your core listeners and your fan base are also growing with you guys, too.
Oli Martin: I think of “Sick of Being Young.” That song is obviously an example of being like, I don’t know, “Fuck off,” or “We know what we’re doing. I don’t care what you have to say.” It’s pretty defensive in a way, where I think this album and the music we’re writing now is just a little more vulnerable. I mean, “Sick of Being Young” is vulnerable, just in voicing that opinion, having insecurities and doubts and sharing those. I don’t know, at least that’s what I think of, but…
Quinn Casper: I think Ollie was touching on this. Now we’re all approaching 30 or something, and it’s like at first we’re like, “Okay,” like, “Sick of Being Young, like yeah, fuck you! Stick it to the man. We’re rocking.” And now, it’s like the gravity is setting in. We have these fans that have been growing with us over the past seven years, but we also have people who ask, “Oh, you’re still doing that?” It’s been a journey navigating that. We still love our fans, and we’re accumulating new ones. This is just who we are. It’s an inherent thing. It’s part of our DNA to keep on writing.
Matt Monosson: To add to that, when you’re younger, you think you know so much. The older you get, the more you realize that isn’t the case. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve experienced new challenges and difficulties that come with growing up and going from college, where you’re only really worrying about school. Now we’re at an age where we have bills we need to pay, people we wanna support, and we have friends that are going down the more traditional route, and we’re not. We’re settling into this point where we’re older, and it’s just different.
JG: A song that stood out to me was “My Friend Max,” and how it shows that softer, more vulnerable side. Was that vulnerability easier to access this time around when making this album?
Oli Martin: Lyrically, over the last few albums, we only had a week to do them. All Out of Good Days was two weeks, and then for Shiver, we had one or two weeks. We were kind of rushed, which I think was both good and bad in terms of not having the time to think or edit too much.
The producer we worked with for In Another Life, Yves Rothman, really pushed us to go to the next level and, honestly, not accept our first take at a lot of lyrics. He was all about pushing harder. I think that inspired us to delve deeper and write scary things or things that you’re not so proud to show the world. Everyone has those things, and I think there’s obviously some power in sharing them with people. And it’s definitely music I’m attracted to, unpacking the scary parts of your mind, but yeah, it’s therapeutic to go through those.
JG: I’ve seen you guys mention stepping away from trend-chasing and algorithm culture. How do you stop your music from just becoming content in 2026?
Paul Colgan: We’ve been taking a bit of a different approach to what we’re putting out online, and I think it’s more curated and artistic. In the sense that we’re working with a creative director and having all of our album artwork fit his kind of specific vibe. I’ve enjoyed it a lot more just because it feels like, rather than making content, we’re making short little music videos for different snippets of the song. You know? It feels more artistically driven and lives in the world of the album a lot more than what we’ve done in the past.
JG: With the tour coming up, are you excited to see how the new music resonates with the live crowd and see what songs they’re really drawn to?
Matt Monosson: We’re really excited to get back out. We haven’t played the East Coast in a little bit. One thing we really harped on with this new album is capturing that live sound. I feel like now that we’ve toured, we’ve been a little more mindful about how stuff will sound live. I love our new music. We’ve played a couple of the new songs, and they are really fun to play live. Each of our parts shines through. I feel like people have really resonated with it, especially live.
Quinn Casper: This album wasn’t recorded live, but we actually played everything together in a live room while we were writing. So just naturally, it is gonna sound more put together live, maybe than our past stuff. Our producer, Yves Rothman, was very rock and roll. Like, “All right, everyone’s gonna be mic’d up.” We had a little headphone set-up and everyone could hear each other. Yves would be going: Come on, come on,” like out of Whiplash or something. It was a very fun moment to be properly writing and jamming everything out in a big practice space, rather than plugging it into a computer. So I think that’ll hopefully translate well live.
Paul Colgan: We got an opportunity to play “Parking Lot” and “Rancher’s Daughter” on the last tour we went out on, opening for The Happy Fits. And even just with those two songs, I think it’s a noticeable difference. Especially with a crowd that doesn’t know our music that well. I think those two songs have a really good vibe and get the people going.
JG: That’s awesome. You’ve got a Toronto show at Horseshoe Tavern coming up on this tour. Any fun stories or memories of playing in Toronto?
Matt Monosson: One fun memory is when we were driving from Buffalo to Toronto, and Taylor Swift was also doing a show. We got caught in traffic both ways!
Oli Martin: It was a cool, like 300-cap venue. Was it the Velvet Underground? Not to toot my own horn, but I did a crazy parallel parking job in Toronto with a trailer and van in the middle of 5:00 traffic. And yeah, it was one of the most stressful moments of my life, but also very great.
Paul Colgan: That was some of your best work.
Oli Martin: Yeah, it was. I felt on top of the world because I parallel parked.
Quinn Casper: We’re excited to get back, though. Someone mentioned earlier, but we haven’t headlined on the East Coast since 2023, and we’ve had a lot of music and a lot of practice since then. I think we’re excited to just bring it.
In Another Life is due out March 27.
You can get more info on the In Another Life Tour here.
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