What's The Meaning Of Life? Ask Protomartyr

Protomartyr doesn't make music for the casual listener. Over the course of four full-length albums, the Detroit-based band has produced a collection of lyrically dense, deeply philosophical (and usually very loud) songs that grapple with some of life's thorniest questions: What does it mean to be human? What is truth? What is the nature of good and evil?

Protomartyr lead singer and lyricist Joe Casey is, to say the least, a seeker — an existential traveler in search of a higher state of consciousness and meaning in an often callous, senseless world.

When you listen to Protomartyr's latest full-length, Relatives In Descent, it's not clear whether Casey is any closer to finding the answers. It's nearly impossible to catch all the literary, historical and pop cultural references he makes on a single track, let alone across the album. So to help make sense of it all, we asked the normally soft-spoken singer to share some of the stories and thoughts behind these powerful, but mostly pensive, songs, track by track. Casey reflects on the economic blight of his native Detroit, capitalism, the cruelty of others and the thoughts that keep him up at night.

1. "A Private Understanding"

"[Guitarist] Greg [Ahee] had given me a demo of this song at the very beginning of thinking about the next record. Even in that form it sounded like it could be the opening salvo and he was thinking the same thing. After that agreement, we put it aside and it cleared up my anxiety knowing that it was lurking in the background somewhere. Any little inspiration or dumb bit of line I came up