SPILL FEATURE: A REBIRTH THROUGH VINYL – A CONVERSATION WITH YOUNG MEDICINE

A REBIRTH THROUGH VINYL

A CONVERSATION WITH YOUNG MEDICINE

There is a particular electricity around Young Medicine right now, an energy that feels like a band that’s finally found its footing. With the release of the Cold Blooded vinyl and their return to FiXT, the band isn’t just entering a new chapter of their careers; they are stepping back into a room they’ve worked tirelessly to rebuild, carrying everything they have learned, lost, and sharpened. It matters because it feels earned after such a long journey, and it feels like Young Medicine is finally allowing themselves to be seen in full technicolor.

“We love having a physical representation of our work; it’s a nice reminder of the time and effort we put into making the album,” says Young Medicine. “At the same time, we’re always judging our own art, and it’s nice to compare what we were able to achieve previously with the quality of work we’re doing now, seeing growth in our abilities as songwriters and producers.”

Cold Blooded has always been a striking release – sleek, neon-dark, and emotionally charged – but pressing it to vinyl has transformed such an important release into something more permanent. There is something different about the listening experience of vinyl. Its physical presence demands attention and asks listeners to sit with it and take it all in, rather than consume it passively in its digital state. When listening to Young Medicine, such rich synth-metallic worlds are built for this kind of physical immersion. From this physical release, a band’s growing identity emerges. With icy synths, razor-sharp hooks, and a white-hot electric pulse surging beneath its emotional core, such unique musical textures further solidify its meaning in a physical release: this era matters, our journey with sound matters, we matter.

“Wait, people actually listen to these things? We were hoping they’d look pretty mounted on a wall!” they joke. “But emotionally, each song reflects a specific moment or experience in our lives. As a whole, the album ends up pretty angsty and self-deprecating, but that’s just how we feel when we express art sometimes. Musically speaking, we were still trying to find a good blend of rock/metal and synthwave/cyberpunk production styles and while some songs are better than others, we still learn a great deal from creating each track. We still don’t know if we’ve managed to find the right balance, but every experiment leads us somewhere new and fun in songwriting.”

From this physical release and re-signing to FiXT, there is something subtly empowering and comforting about returning to the place where that story began. FiXT has always been more than a label to them – it’s been a creative haven and a place where their artistic identity made sense before the scene eventually caught on. Re-signing signaled trust and a desire to build something bigger. When you have someone who understands your artistic DNA, filmic ambitions, genre-building instinct, and your refusal to feel the need to choose between vulnerability and spectacle, it’s easy to see the value of a label that appreciates your musical evolution and encourages such risks. When a partnership is rooted in shared history, mutual respect, and the belief that a band’s next chapter deserves a foundation strong enough to withstand its creative decisions, coming back felt right.

“We already know and enjoy working with the team at FiXT, so that made the initial discussions of a third album easier from the get-go, and being able to look at what worked before and what we can improve meant that everyone was on the same page,” says Young Medicine. “We can be more effective in releasing and promoting a new album cycle by building on that previous experience. Since they’re interested in working with us again, we must have done something right! Starting this third album cycle, we already have a dedicated fanbase, and we’re more efficient in getting the songs and art together. This time around, we feel more confident in our plan to release and market our stuff as effectively as possible.”

The timing of all of this – the vinyl, the re-signing, and renewed excitement-feels almost poetic. In a landscape where things are always shifting, there is a growing desire for something real wrapped in innovation. Listeners want an emotional connection to their music without sacrificing their creative vision. We want artists who can artfully document the chaos of modern life, without drowning in the weight of it all. Young Medicine’s style and lyricism uniquely positions them to meet this demand that listeners are searching for. Their sound has always lived at this intersection, where synthetic textures carry raw emotion. Cold Blooded captures that balance perfectly, and releasing it on vinyl gives listeners a new way to experience these emotions in its physical form. This isn’t a comeback; you could even say it’s not a return, because with or without a label behind them, they have always been an independent band that has put making music they love above fame and fortune. Perhaps it’s convergence, where every creative risk, exploratory journey, and reinvention of their sound has led to this point in their career.

“I don’t think we’ve ever felt creatively “safe”, as we understand it. Each song should be a little bit weird in some respect so we can always say we did something unique or risky,” admits Young Medicine. “Also, from an industry-wide perspective, the landscape has never been as volatile as it is now when it comes to distribution, discovery, how to use social media, etc. Making music feels like the least safe career path at the moment, haha. FiXT is a little more tuned in on that side of the music industry than we are; they’re a huge help in navigating the chaos. We just want to keep making art our younger selves would think is cool and unique, without anything being compromised by streaming platforms, social media, or tech companies that have turned everyone’s art into rapidly digestible, disposable “content”.

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