Mert Spalty Finds Beauty in the Chaos on 'PODUNK'

There’s a certain kind of magic that only exists in small clubs after midnight. The floors are sticky, the amps are louder than they should be, and every lyric feels less like a performance and more like a confession. Mert Spalty bottles that exact feeling on PODUNK, an eight-track collection that doesn't polish away its imperfections but proudly wears them as part of its identity.

Written after a year of road-testing the material with his live band throughout New York City, PODUNK feels less like a studio album and more like stepping into a packed basement show. Every track carries an urgency that's impossible to fake, reflecting Spalty's mission to sing like you mean it and play music loud.

Opening with "Cloud 9," the record immediately establishes its emotional balancing act, chasing optimism while acknowledging the weight that comes with growing up. That theme continues across standout cuts like "How the World Spins," where life's lessons become increasingly difficult to ignore, and "Sabotage," a punchy reminder that our greatest obstacles are often the ones we create ourselves. The album's emotional centerpiece, "Threads," digs even deeper into self-destruction, turning personal shortcomings into something surprisingly cathartic.

What keeps PODUNK engaging is its refusal to stay in one lane. "Wave" strips everything back into a raw single-take performance that feels startlingly intimate, while "Summer I Shaved My Head" captures a fleeting chapter of life with nostalgic clarity. By the time "River Run" arrives, the album slows just enough to reflect on how time quietly reshapes us before the closing track, "Rollercoaster" ties everything together with an honest acceptance that growth isn't always linear. Sometimes life really does feel like going around the same bend over and over again.

Musically, Spalty blends alternative rock, punk, indie rock, and even unexpected flourishes into something uniquely his own. The DIY production never feels like a limitation. If anything, recording and producing the album himself gives PODUNK an authenticity that's increasingly rare. Rather than chasing perfection, Spalty captures moments, and those moments feel alive.

At its heart, PODUNK is an album about learning, failing, repeating mistakes, and continuing forward anyway. It's loud without losing its vulnerability, energetic without sacrificing substance, and nostalgic without feeling trapped in the past. For listeners who still believe the best rock records should feel lived-in rather than manufactured, Mert Spalty delivers exactly that with PODUNK.

You describe PODUNK as an album about learning life lessons, sometimes learning them, sometimes not. Looking back now, which lesson from this record has been the hardest for you to actually live by?

Hardest for me is DO NOT SELF-SABOTAGE. So many times I've undercut myself, from a lack of confidence or fear of rejection or just because??? And I do still. I've been procrastinating writing responses to these interview questions. Right before releasing PODUNK I sent multiple mix revisions of ‘Cloud 9’ out for mastering. I stay out late at bars and smoke despite what it does to my singing voice. ‘Sabotage’ is a song I sing with hope.

These songs spent a year evolving on stage before they were recorded. How did performing them change the way you approached the final versions that ended up on the album?

Playing these songs live baked them into my brain that way.  I love when a band has good live energy, and it’s captured in their recordings. On stage I give it my all and the band brings more. And because an audience hoots and hollers, applauds, shoves each other around…..playing the songs live helped sharpen their most compelling versions.

PODUNK feels like a live show with flair- soaring lead guitars, splash of choir vox, dab of organ. Fletcher was keen to explore vocoders, freaky flangers, grain delay.....too bad, Fletch- it was already right as is!

You produced, recorded, and mixed PODUNK yourself in practice spaces and your apartment. What did taking complete creative control allow you to achieve that a traditional studio environment couldn't?

Total control I learned is a blessing and a curse. But it taught me that II can make a record like this one, mostly on my own.  I’ve figured out what to ask for help with next time too.

Making it myself let me leave my fingerprints all over it. The guitar parts are sloppy and exciting. Vocal takes fearless. I bleeped out the word ‘goon’ in ’Summer I Shaved My Head’ because it cracks me up.  I explored parts of my own style in ways I'd have missed or fixed in a studio.

The album moves between explosive punk energy and quieter, reflective moments. How important was it for you to capture both the chaos of a live show and the vulnerability behind the lyrics?

Most important for me was to make it a fun listening experience. I never want a song to drag out too long, always evolving and  exciting. Subverting expectations. An acoustic bossa nova song at the center of a punk album, ‘Wave’ on PODUNK.

Lyrics are the most important bit for me. If I don’t have a message, I can’t sing as I mean it. Vulnerability is always there even at the top of my lungs.

The title PODUNK embraces a label that some people might dismiss. What does the word represent to you, and how does it reflect your philosophy as an independent artist making music outside the traditional industry system?

"Podunk" is how this album sounds to me. I described my band as "podunk punk" in a band bio for a venue’s website, and it stuck. The music IS punk. And I yodel when I sing. And many of the songs have a train drum beat. And I cobbled this album together myself front to back, entirely homegrown, made from scratch. Not a lick of AI on it. I mixed it in Ableton using stock plugins and my SP-404. It’s a simply made album, and that is a testament to art from my perspective.

If you’re ready to dismiss PODUNK, you’re not ready for Mert Spalty.