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From signing their record deal in 2011 to playing the mainstage at the Vans Warped Tour alongside their idols this summer, Set It Off has been steadily and persistently rising over the last five years. The Florida-based band—comprised of Cody Carson, Maxx Danziger, Dan Clermont and Zach DeWall—is as high-energy as they come (ya know, if you couldn't already tell from the snapshot above). 

Sound-wise, they give even our faves One Direction and Justin Bieber a run for their money, and though they're a pop-rock band, SIO take influence from a *ton* of genres and artists: Hip hop, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift and even the sass and riffs from '90s boy bands.

That's all thanks to the eclectic mix of music lead singer Cody Carson listened to growing up. "It was the oldies songs that my mom and dad would sing when they were in a band—"Saving All My Love" by Whitney Houston, all this stuff. And my sister got me into Destiny's Child, *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys." After that, Cody broke off and started listening to other genres such as pop-punk.

It's that hodgepodge of musical interests and backgrounds the band used to craft their new album, Upside Down, out Oct. 7. The entire album is phenomenal—it's their "most exciting," Cody says—so we asked him to give us the deets on our fave tracks. Check out the inside scoop below.

"Life Afraid"

The message on this song comes from a heavy, dark place, but it's the lightest and most uplifting on the entire album. The track was written in November 2015, the day of the terrorist attacks in Paris at Bataclan Concert Hall.

"I was terrified and disgusted and taken aback, mainly because we've played there," Cody explains. "The first time Set It Off ever went overseas, the finale of the tour was at Le Bataclan with Yellowcard. Like, what if that show was that day? Who’s to say that I would be alive today, or our fans?"

The weight of the events got to him, causing the band to *almost* cancel their planned recording session that day. But they couldn't let the ugliness of the act win out. "We got excited and said, 'You know what? Let's write today, I'm feeling emotional, let's get this out'," Cody says. "I didn’t want to write a negative song, I wanted to write a celebration of life. And a celebration of realizing these moments and how it can be taken away from you at any moment, so the fact that you are alive today is amazing, and don’t take it for granted."

"Upside Down"

If your bad day feels more like a bad year, press play on this track. It's all about moving forward and turning your frowns upside down when things get rough.

"You’re gonna hit a lot of roadblocks, and it's your choice to actually treat them as a roadblock or a speed bump," Cody explains. "No matter what happens, no matter what obstacle is put in front of us, we’ve always jumped over them. We've always made our way through it, turned and found that positivity in that dark area. You have to fight for that."

"Want"

Boy band lovers, listen up! This track is where you'll really hear that signature sass and those vocal riffs. It gets pretty emotional, but with a mysterious, moody tone when Cody owns up to being careless with others' feelings. "I spent so much time writing lyrics where I call people out," Cody spills. "But I never take time to call myself out and I think that's important. This is a song that's basically a confession...and just realizing that I make mistakes."

"Crutch"

SIO slows things down at the end of the album with this super honest and powerful track. Cody explains that "this person I was dating wouldn't get out of bed. They wouldn't go to their own grocery store. They wouldn't do anything. I felt like this crutch, that I was just being leaned and leaned on for everything. Ultimately it drove me insane. It was really hard to deal with as a whole." 

As you can tell, Upside Down deals with a variety of themes, emotions and topics. But if there's one takeaway, Cody explains that overall, it's about "appreciating the good, getting rid of the negative and just weeding out all those areas of your life that might be holding you back and becoming stronger for it."

Oh yeah, that's *totally* a message we can get behind. You can preorder Set It Off's new album now on their website *or* pick it up when it hits shelves Oct. 7.

Have you heard of Set it Off before? How excited are you to listen to Upside Down?!

by Sydney Adamson | 9/18/2016