Longtime California punk band Lagwagon have written and recorded a brand new album. Hang, the band's first full-length since 2005's Resolve, is scheduled for an October 28, 2014 release on Fat Wreck Chords. Consisting of twelve all-new Lagwagon originals, Hang has been a highly anticipated album, to say the least, by one of the scene's most durable, productive and appreciated acts.

Recently I had the opportunity and pleasure of asking Lagwagon frontman Joey Cape a handful of interview questions. This is what he had to say.

Hang, the band’s first album since Resolve in 2005, has been a highly anticipated project for Lagwagon fans. Had there been plans to write and record new material for some time, or did this just sort of happen due to members, locations and circumstances coinciding in such a way that it became possible?

It was always my intention to write another record if it felt right. For some time I simply did not know what the collective identity of the band was. A few years back it came to me and the bands synergy and chemistry was at an all time high coming off of the tours we did to support our box set. Something about playing all those old songs rekindled something in the band and my writing as well.

When I listened to the stream of “Cog in the Machine” from the new album I admittedly didn’t know what to think. It seemed so different from the Lagwagon songs I grew up with on Duh, Trashed, Hoss, etc. But now that I have had a chance to listen to the rest of Hang, it occurs to me that this is an album that is meant to be experienced in its entirety. Still, what brought about the shift in sound?

Time, I suppose. I can never recognize those things in our music. It’s difficult to be objective and impossible to see the change in the same way a fan can. We have evolved and have to stay true to whatever the collective group comes up with. Hang is the most collaborative record we have made. This almost certainly had an effect on the outcome. All I know is, we love it and that is the goal. I think self-indulgence needs to be the focus if you want to make art with conviction.

As far as the lyrical content, what were your main points of focus and conveyance throughout the album?

Hang was lyrically inspired by the disappointment and humility that comes with age. I tried to address the things I see as threatening to our future, human behavior, its cost and the lack of accountability. This could be seen as my bitter old man record but, I prefer to see it as a series of my rants. The world my daughter has to live in. At its core the central themes are empathy and my belief that it is essential to the survival of our species, all other species and the planet. It scares me to see a natural progression in humans to become apathetic narcissists who lack accountability and possibly sympathy. It seems empathy and sensitivity are too much for us to handle. Sometimes I think our children are budding sociopaths. At least on whole, we are giving them every excuse to be apathetic and self-centered. It’s bitter sweet that growing old brings an understanding and empathy for or elders, our parents and grandparents, but we do not know how to stop filling the young mind with doctrine while we lose sight of what they are into. We can become more vulnerable facing obsolescence through old age and therefore we should want to teach the young to consider history and its mistakes and reconsider all that we are doing to destroy each other.

“One More Song,” as I understand it, is a tribute to Tony Sly. He was clearly a good friend and big inspiration to you, and he is missed by the whole punk scene. What went into the writing of this particular song?

It was very difficult. We always feel a sense of what we could have done to change the outcome when we lose someone. It’s part of the grieving process. I had not planned to write a song for him or his family. Words and music sometimes don’t seem enough. But this song came out of me one day and I couldn’t deny it. Tony was working on a song in Brooklyn in a hotel we shared. That was on the tour the week before he passed. I was so fortunate to hear it, but we will never hear it again as it will never be fully realized or recorded. “One More Song” was a chant at the end of Tony’s song “Liver Let Die.” It made sense to me to use it as an idea that one more song could have meant one or more days he was alive to finish the song he was working on. The thing is, it’s not the importance of the song that I intended to resonate with this; it is the fact that it could have afforded us one more chance to see him, talk to him. He would still be here. Something many of us will always long for.

While Lagwagon has toured consistently over the years, you have somehow managed to do your solo acoustic work under your own name, as well as Bad Loud, Scorpios, and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Do you juggle all of these endeavors simultaneously, or do you designate time for each of them separately?

The latter. In a way, whatever is in front of me is my priority. I love making music and might as well be creative when Lagwagon is not working, which does happen from time to time. That said, Lagwagon is my band. The band I have been in for 25 years. Everything else is ultimately a side project.

Lagwagon has a bunch of tour dates set for the US and Canada. Has the band played any shows of the new songs yet? And if so, how were they received?

No. We chose to wait. The loose plan is to play the entire record live on the up and coming tour dates. It remains to be seen, though. We start rehearsal this weekend. We’ll see how it goes.