You Made Us
You Made Us released on March 25 2023, the day that would be the 52nd birthday of Stephen Sevananda Rice– Bala’s father. It features 2 tracks: “You Made Us” and “Understatement”. The title track is a melancholy tribute to Stephen, who had passed away at the end of 2021 and endowed Bala with their passion for music. Bala takes lead vocals on this EP with their sisters Candrika Rice and Sapphire Welka on backing vocals. Understatement is an aggressive classic punk song about finding belonging in Pittsburgh’s DIY music scene. The artwork and music video were made by Bala.
Live at Steel City Death Club
On May 28th 2022, Understatement performed for episode 32 of Steel City Death Club’s “Live at SCDC” Youtube series. They performed 4 new songs: “Only A Moment”, “Understatement”, “I Don’t Know What I Want” and “Rivalry”, as well as their single “Motocross“, and off camera, a cover of “No Feelings” by Sex Pistols– a song they learned for a Halloween 2021 cover set. These were all first takes. The episode premiered alongside the EP’s release on Bandcamp on August 13th 2022. The four new songs released on all other streaming platforms on December 17th 2022 after the band decided to focus their next album on even newer material.
Annabelle//Spin The Bottle
“Annabelle” and “Spin The Bottle” were recorded during the same studio sessions as the tracks from Get Away With Murder in the fall of 2021. These songs were released on December 17th 2021, and cut from the album because the band didn’t think they quite captured the same vibe as the others. Instead, this EP served as the first music that Understatement recorded with Razorblade Recordings and were a taste of what was to come. They were however included on the cassette and vinyl releases of Get Away with Murder, both issued months after the it was initially made available on streaming and CD.
the worst thing you’ve ever heard
The aptly named the worst thing you’ve ever heard was recorded in April and May of 2021. It features the single versions of Understatement’s first two songs–“Hell Who Cares” and “Counterpart”– as well as the earliest 2 other tracks on Get Away With Murder. It has a distinctly more garage rock sound to it than their future work. Initially, the plan was to record the whole album in this style, but Understatement ultimately decided to move to Razorblade Recordings after being impressed with their mixing work on this EP. The worst thing you’ve ever heard was initially released only as a CD on August 21st, 2021. On the 1 year anniversary of “Hell Who Cares”– May 22nd, 2022– the band made it available on Bandcamp with the original mix of “Hell Who Cares” included. This version was only streaming for about 6 weeks before they swapped it out with the Razorblade Recordings mix.