Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Signed to V2 songwriter imprint on an unsolicited demo, just-released “Mr. Moon” single by Gregory Ackerman is bundled with two non-album tracks.

 Prolific songwriter’s “Still Waiting Still” out Sept. 17th; Meta-single “Good Song” (about writing a “good song”) also out now w/ Illuminati Hotties collab.
 
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Gregory Ackerman as photographed by Nell T Sherman
 
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Gregory Ackerman | “Mr. Moon + Awaken! + Haunting Me”
  

[STREAM] | https://Fanatic.lnk.to/GregoryAckerman-MrMoon
 
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“Shimmering with delicacy and strength. Breezy as it is riveting... Ackerman’s work is intimate and confiding and played with the kind of commanding interior strength that gives it an instantly timeless quality.” — Stereo Embers
 
Check out the new three-song bundle from Gregory Ackerman, including “Mr. Moon,” taken from the upcoming album Still Waiting Still (Sept. 17th), along with two non-album tracks “Awaken!” and “Haunting Me”.
 
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Gregory Ackerman | About | “Mr. Moon + Awaken! + Haunting Me”
 
‘Mr. Moon’ came about in a similar manner to ‘Good Song’ (see below),” says Ackerman. “I think I wrote the two within the same week. I just wanted a simple guitar melody that I could sing lyrics over, and one night, while staring up at the full moon, I was captivated by how well I could see the face of the man on the moon.
 
“I felt such a strong connection to the moon that night that I just started singing about that ever-present, yet ethereal fella that just sits in the sky and watches over us each night. Good ol’ Mr. Moon. I felt connected with the universe, the stars, and the sky, and I figured, hey, ‘above you, I’ll be shining soon.’
 
“Getting pretty morbid, but I figured, whenever it is my time to go, I bet I’ll be up there in the sky with good ol’ Mr. Moon one day, and that’s not such a bad way to go.”
 
About the two non-album tracks that Ackerman has released with the “Mr. Moon” single, he comments, “I wrote ‘Awaken!’ one day on the fly alone in my home studio. I started playing this simple melody line that I played over and over as a loop and recorded it. That loop then formed the structure for the whole song.
 
“It was more of an instrumental songwriting exercise, really, all based off of that repeating line. I wanted it to start small and build up to these fantastic electric heavy mad choruses. I remember one of my roommates walking by and commenting ‘nice, using the loop pedal!’
 
“I ended up calling it ‘Awaken!’ because the structure of the song reminded me of getting up slowly in the morning and then experiencing all the thoughts, worries, realities of the day come crashing on you.”
 
‘Haunting Me’ was written out of this feeling that I wanted to get away from a folk acoustic sound. I wrote it out of a feeling of frustration of not being heard, not being attentioned to, by a girl I was interested in.
 
“She was always on my mind and it was really frustrating to me, so much so that I started joking that she was ‘haunting me.’ I equated being ignored by a girl to a ghost being ignored by the living, always trying to make contact, but those attempts always being in vain.”
 

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Gregory Ackerman | In The Press

 

“Bathed in Californian moonlight, reminiscent of folk and soft rock music coming from the West Coast in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Ackerman’s gentle voice is soothing straight out of the gate.” — PopMatters

 

“I’ve had this song going around my head since I first heard it.” — Folk Radio UK

 

“Carries a sense of nostalgia that is only amplified by Ackerman’s deep and hushed vocal harmonies and slowly strummed guitar. There is something strangely relatable and pleasing about this lush yet simple indie folk.” — Glide Magazine

 

“Oscillates between giving hope to those who are lovestruck and those who just need a breath of fresh air.” — Atwood Magazine

 

“Indie folk gem... a phenomenal wave of emotions full of lush harmonies and poignant lyrics.” — Last Day Deaf

 

“A stirring percussive ensemble, over moving vocals and guitar.” — Americana Highways

 

“Hard to resist.” — Adobe and Teardrops

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Gregory Ackerman
Still Waiting Still
Sept. 17th, 2021
(S/R)
  

Track Listing:
 
01. Intro
02. Think Straight (STREAM)
03. Full Grown (VIDEO | STREAM)
04. Peace of Mind
05. Good Song (STREAM)
06. Seasonal Living
07. Happy Phase
08. 2023
09. Mr. Moon (STREAM)
10. For Rob
11. Right Again
12. My Heart Goeth
13. All This Thinking
 
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Gregory Ackerman | “Good Song” + “Losing Sense”
 
  
 

Check out “Good Song” by Gregory Ackerman at Folk Radio UK or Americana Highways and listen to the B-side “Losing Sense” (feat. Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties) at American Songwriter or click the link above!
 
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Folk Radio UK describes Gregory Ackerman’s latest single “Good Song” as “an infectious laid-back hazy number, lyrically sincere and couched in more than a little ray of that west coast sunshine.” The song is the latest single taken from Ackerman’s upcoming sophomore full-length Still Waiting Still, arriving Sept. 17th.
 
American Songwriter comments on the single’s non-album B-side “Losing Sense” (which features backing vocals from Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties), “Ackerman’s deep, throaty tenor reverberates across the drum kit, as he recounts his crash course in love during a pandemic,” describing Tudzin’s contribution as, “peeking out in haunted whispers to counterbalance Ackerman’s swarthier tone.”
 
Ackerman says, “I wrote ‘Good Song’ out of this feeling of desperation that I just wanted my music to be heard. I began to think about how one creates a ‘good’ song, and the lyrics just started to come together about the notion of pouring yourself into a song in hopes to even get considered as a ‘good’ songwriter.
 
“The writing process can be so painful sometimes (‘dredging up feelings of the past’), and no matter how much heart and soul you put into a song, there’s always the chance that it can be ultimately overlooked. I guess that’s similar to life in general, and music truly echoes life in all its ups and downs, joys and sorrows.”
 
About the single’s non-album B-side “Losing Sense,” Ackerman reveals a story of personal heartbreak, saying, “I wrote it after the abrupt end to an abrupt start of a beautiful thing with a beautiful neighbor. It started strong and intensely, and burned out just as quickly. Crashed and burned, perhaps. You can’t put too much pressure on yourself or on the other person in these scenarios, and I did both.
 
“I asked Sarah Tudzin of Illuminati Hotties to work on this track with me. She provided backing vocals, and I am very grateful that she did. Since I thought the song was more along the lines of ‘rock n roll’ than some of my previous tunes, I thought that Sarah’s ‘tenderpunk’-ness would lend itself perfectly.”
 
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Gregory Ackerman | About
 

“I used to feel like I was the only one that should have a say in my process,” says Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, Gregory Ackerman of his music. “I’ve since discovered that both life and music get better the more people you share them with.”
 
The latest work that Ackerman is sharing with the world is Still Waiting Still (out Sept. 17th, 2021), the follow-up to 2019’s “Stresslove EP” (V2/Munich Records), and Ackerman’s first full-length since his debut album And Friends in 2018.
 
Still Waiting Still was produced by Pierre de Reeder of Rilo Kiley who adds touches of hypnotic mysticism on top of the California summer sunset melodies, which beautifully combine with Ackerman’s plainspoken philosophical lyrics and twisty, dexterous guitar to create what is now Ackerman’s signature sound.
 
The title of Still Waiting Still’s first single seems to reference the evolution in Ackerman’s thinking. “Full Grown,” originally a spare song written when he was only 20-years-old
(Ackerman is now 28), is given a full production makeover for inclusion on Still Waiting Still.
 
“For the rendition of ‘Full Grown’ on Still Waiting Still, I had violinist Gabriel Wheaton update it with a beautiful string arrangement. His contribution resulted in an amazingly thematic version of what I now consider to be an ‘old classic’ from my catalog.”
 
In addition to Wheaton, new friends that Ackerman has invited to participate in creating Still Waiting Still include other Los Angeles-area talents such as Grant Milliken, Eva B. Ross, Shelby Gogreve, and Theo and Mark Federonic.
 
“These are all great musicians that I met playing shows in Los Angeles,” Ackerman says. “This new personnel, combined with my trusty foundation (Ackerman’s brother Eric, close friend
Keenan McDaniel, and friend and producer, de Reeder), helped Still Waiting Still become a lively collection of brand-new material mixed with songs that I’d written years ago.”
 
Ackerman guesses that half of Still Waiting Still’s 13 songs were written while he was in college, shortly after he had begun to write and record in earnest. His posts of the results on
Soundcloud revealed that listeners liked what they heard, and Ackerman was later signed on an unsolicited demo to V2 –affiliated singer-songwriter offshoot, Munich Records.
 
“For this album I wanted my past self and current self to align again as one fluid artist. All of the songs on Still Waiting Still have an inherent grit or humor to them, and were written with a youthful ironic moodiness which I relate to once again as a 28-year-old.”
 
“I wanted to bring back the states of mind that I used to feel,” Ackerman continues, going on to reference the album’s second upcoming single, the aptly titled, “Good Song,” in which he sings about “dredging up feelings from the past,” while trying to write a song about writing songs.
 
‘Good Song’ came out of my frustration in feeling the pressure to make ‘likeable’ music,” Ackerman confesses. “I was constantly feeling mostly self- imposed pressure to write a ‘hit song,’ and I remember being able to finally take a step back from that mindset and look at it humorously. Why not write a song about trying to write a good song?”
 
Still Waiting Still contains 13 of ‘em actually, and Ackerman is proud.
 
“It’s not perfect, just as nothing with a heartbeat ever is, but I hope that it represents some part of me that perhaps I could not express any other way.”
 
Still Waiting Still, the second album by Gregory Ackerman, arrives on Sept. 17th, 2021 preceded by the singles “Full Grown” (out now), “Good Song” (July 23rd), and “Mr. Moon” (Aug 20th). Gregory Ackerman is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Gregory Ackerman | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SPOTIFY : APPLE : BANDCAMP
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Elephant 6 Recording Co., The Apples In Stereo co-founder, Hilarie Sidney to follow-up first album in 13 years with new single “Jenny” on Sept. 24th.

 Latest by The High Water Marks is first from “Proclaimer of Things” full-length, arriving Feb. 2022 from Minty Fresh; “Ecstasy Rhymes” LP out now.
 
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The High Water Marks (L-R): Logan Miller, Hilarie Sidney, Per Ole Bratset, Øystein Megård. Photo credit: Self-Portraits, Illustration by Per Ole Bratset.
 
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The High Water Marks | “Annual Rings”

 
The music video for “Annual Rings” by The High Water Marks was co-created by University of Kentucky students, Wils Quinn and Nicholas Volosky, and produced at the school’s media space The Media Depot.
 
“We were sitting next to the radio on a spring evening in our small town,” Quinn remembers. “The next thing we heard was ‘Annual Rings’ by The High Water Marks blasting into the quiet Kentucky night. We knew right then and there that we had to become involved. You could consider it a calling or a spiritual awakening.”
 
[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljrUSTi7p_s
 
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The High Water Marks | In The Press
 

“An earworm melody.” — Brooklyn Vegan
 
“Clock-stopping, pulse-raising mega-pop.” — UNCUT
 
“Complex and considered arrangements... Sugar-coated melodies to spare.” — Pitchfork
 
“Beautifully warm, catchy, high-energy... garage pop for the masses.” — PASTE
 
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The High Water Marks
Ecstasy Rhymes
Out Now
(Minty Fresh)
 
Streaming Link:
STREAM FULL LP
  

Track Listing:
01. Ode To Lieutenant Glahn
02. Annual Rings (VIDEO)
03. Can You (STREAM | VIDEO)
04. Ecstasy Rhymes
05. Award Show (STREAM)
06. Some Like It Lukewarm
07. The Trouble With Friends (STREAM | VIDEO)
08. I’ll Be Formal (With You Because of It)
09. Pepin le Bref
10. Accidentally On Purpose
11. Satellite
12. Pretending To Be Loud
 
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The High Water Marks | About
 

“I am so lucky to have been a musician throughout my life,” says Hilarie Sidney of The High Water Marks, the band she fronts out of her adopted home town of Grøa, Norway. The foursome has just released Ecstasy Rhymes, its first album in 13 years, via Minty Fresh.
 
You probably know Sidney best for what she got up to during her time living in Denver, Colorado.
 
Sidney is the co-founder of one of the most influential musical collectives of the past, oh, forever amount of years.
 
Elephant 6 is a storied, and now legendary, musical collective and Sidney was as at its nucleus as a founding member of The Apples in stereo.
 
It was a “boys club,” Sidney confesses.
 
Sidney was the only woman among her band and the other two acts – Neutral Milk Hotel and Olivia Tremor Control – that were the most visible members of Elephant 6, and as the umbrella opened to international recognition and acclaim, and to seemingly dozens of other bands that wanted to be a part, Sidney’s enthusiasm drifted.
 
Her passion for songwriting never wavered, however.
 
“Having been in the Apples and on the road since 1993, I started to have many more songs than could ever be released on an Apples record. I was piling up songs, and being surrounded by a group of men for so many years, one can lose oneself,” she confides.
 
Sidney eventually found new love, and a new musical partnership, when she formed The High Water Marks, releasing a debut album (Songs About The Ocean) in 2003. The record was written and demoed through the mail with her now-husband and bandmate, Per Ole Bratset, whom she initially met at an Apples gig in Norway in 2002. A follow-up album (Polar) arrived in 2007.
 
By that time, Sidney and Bratset were an item.
 
Per and I had our son in 2005,” Sidney says of becoming a mother for the second time (Sidney and Schneider also have a son from their marriage.) “I realized I wanted a break from touring. That whole life had begun to wear me out.”
 
The fallout from Sidney’s divorce from Schneider, and life as a mom with two boys, led her to officially leave the Apples in 2006 and to put the music business on the back burner soon after.
 
“Still writing songs, always writing songs...”
 
With that, Sidney attempted to clean out the closet in 2011, leading to some recording sessions that eventually had to be scrapped, and leaving her to feel “kind of hopeless,” she remembers.
 
But drummers are tough!
 
Sidney picked herself up and headed in another direction by beginning to finish up a Bachelor’s degree, which led to her being awarded a prestigious study abroad scholarship at the University of Oslo.
 
“Moving was everything I had hoped it would be,” she explains. “In Norway, we have a work-life balance, health care, a living wage, five weeks of vacation, and freedom for our youngest son to roam without constant supervision.”
 
Perhaps most importantly, she started playing music again.
 
Thirteen years after releasing her last album as The High Water Marks, the band has completed a new album that reflects the maturity, perseverance, songwriting, and performing talent that made Sidney’s contributions to Elephant 6 and the Apples so integral.
 
If she was marginalized at the time, those notions are blown out by Ecstasy Rhymes, 38 minutes of perfect power pop, one song after another that will take any fan of the songs that Sidney contributed to Apples recordings – her voice is instantly recognizable – right back to the most potent days of that band’s career.
 
As he did on previous releases, Bratset also contributes lead vocals on several songs, all of which were co-written with Sidney. In addition to Sidney on Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, and Drums, and Bratset on Vocals and Guitars, the band includes Logan Miller on Bass, Guitar, and Drums, along with Øystein Megård on Drums. Keyboards, and Backing Vocals.
 
“I feel like for the first time ever, we have a dream team,” Sidney says. “I have my partner in crime by my side, like always, but we managed to also find these two other fantastic people who we can work with so well. We finally have the best band we’ve ever had and a great record.”
 
Seems Sidney’s luck as a musician hasn’t run out yet.
 
Ecstasy Rhymes, the first album in 13 years by The High Water Marks, was released on Nov. 20th, 2020. The band’s next album Proclaimer of Things arrives Feb. 2022. The album’s first single “Jenny” is coming up on Sept. 24th, 2021, all via Minty Fresh.
 
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The High Water Marks | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : INSTAGRAM : SPOTIFY : APPLE : MINTY FRESH
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : INSTAGRAM : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Producer Tom Gorai (A Tribe Called Quest, Nine Inch Nails) strikes again as his visual artist alter-ego Sweeten for Blesson Roy’s “Undertow” single.

2021 remix of Blesson Roy album cut “Ana Left Spain” to be released Sept. 24th, accompanied by two all-new tracks. Debut Think Like Spring, out now.
 
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Terry Borden of Blesson Roy as photographed by Ankhurr Chawaak
 
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Blesson Roy | “Undertow”
 


 
 
[VIDEO (SWEETENED)]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QliQI73nvM
 
‘Undertow’ took on a darker and lusher soundscape than I had originally imagined, having written that one as a Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake-influenced acoustic guitar song. As the recording unfolded, however, I realized that ‘Undertow’ needed a dark ambient soundscape rather than a stripped-down acoustic production. I had the time and intention to be open to following songs in one direction, and then going in the opposite musical direction, until it seemed that the song had found its way home in the recording.” — Terry Borden, Blesson Roy
 
‘Undertow’ is yet another example of a bit of magic from Blesson Roy, and damn if he didn’t fill this song with everything dope. After I listened to it about five times, I decided I had to make something that gives a sense of what I see and feel when I hear it. So, I took a look at an art piece that I was working on and some recent footage I shot with a model in Death Valley, and start blending them while listening to the song over and over and over, and I go timeless in my head and when then I come to, I’m looking at something strangely perfect.
 
“It is layered and dense and colorful and even a bit haunting with a headless horsewoman, and feels very much like being stuck in an undertow, maybe gonna die, but just waiting it out kind of patiently until it’s over. Of course it is dark out and it turns out the whole day had passed, so oops, I guess I’ll have to get back to everyone tomorrow.” — Sweeten, Director, “Undertow”
 
See the “Sweetened” video of “Undertow” by Blesson Roy now via It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine here or at the link above.
  
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Order Think Like Spring by Blesson Roy as a deluxe-package 180gm white vinyl edition at Bandcamp here.
 
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Blesson Roy
Think Like Spring
Out Now
(Slow Start Records)
 
Streaming Link:
STREAM FULL LP


Track Listing:
 
01. Soothe (STREAM)
02. Fingerprints Of Love
03. Undertow (STREAM | VIDEO | VIDEO [SWEETENED])
04. Should’ve Known Better (VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO | REMIX)
05. Ana Left Spain
06. Stays With You (STREAM | VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO)
07. The Loving Sea
08. Waterfall Drops
09. Maria Rain
10. Thousand (STREAM | VIDEO)
11. Near
12. I Can See You
13. Falling
14. The Gaps
 
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Blesson Roy | In The Press
 
“Articulate songwriting... deliciously catchy hooks.” — American Songwriter
 
“A new sound in a new decade.” — PopMatters
 
“Dreamy and earthy. — The Big Takeover
 
“Intricately-arranged pop.” — MXDWN
 
“One of the catchiest numbers of the year.” — Stereo Embers
 
“Hypnotic.” — Treble
 
“Sunny, Beach Boys-esque.” — Glide Magazine
 
Beach Boys with Big Star’s vibrant melodies.” — Beats Per Minute
 
“Will expand your mind.” — BTRtoday
 
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Blesson Roy | “Should’ve Known Better”
 

 

  [VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHB3XhFITaI
  
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Hear “Should’ve Known Better” by Blesson Roy via American Songwriter and see the video at Under The Radar or at the links below.
 
Calling back to the bright tones and sweet melodies of Britpop. Amidst a jangly guitar-led instrumental and sharp vocal hook, Terry Borden of Blesson Roy takes listeners on another trip back through his record collection, showing his ability to incorporate and synthesize styles as both a creator and a fan.
 
“It’s basically the designed cinematic and aural engaged focus, rhythm, and pacing of a real ‘climactic’ human moment,” says director Tom Gorai aka Sweeten, the Grammy® and Emmy®-nominated producer who has also produced videos for Pearl Jam (“Jeremy”), Nine Inch Nails, and A Tribe Called Quest tells Under The Radar of his clip for the Blesson Roy single “Should’ve Known Better,” which depicts a masked Los Angeles, courtesy of a cyclist who biffs it, and a liquor store parking lot dancer who clearly does not.
 
The “Should’ve Known Better,” video captures the “happy-sad emotional connection” that Borden – a veteran of slowcore pioneers Idaho and world-wide tours as part of Pete Yorn’s band – recently told American Songwriter he was working towards when writing the song. “I like the energy, the guitars, and the contrasting bittersweet light and dark tones of the words and music. The chord progression was persistently coming out when I picked up the guitar over a long period of time. It required a permanent home!”
 
Influenced by The Smiths, Leonard Cohen, The Beatles, David Bowie, New Order, Lou Reed, Punk and Post-Punk from the 80s and 90s, as well as the roots of those movements from the 60s and 70s, Borden brings these and more to his debut album, Think Like Spring, out now via Slow Start Records.
 
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Blesson Roy | About
 
Think Like Spring is the debut album from life-long “music lover and music doer,” Terry Borden, the man behind Blesson Roy, and follows-up Borden’s twin 2020 EPs Time Is A Crime” and “Time Is A Crime (Almost Acoustic).”
 
The album is the 14-song dreamy pop reflection of a child of 1970’s California whose early love of AM radio and his brother’s record collection led to membership in slowcore pioneers Idaho and Pete Yorn’s band Dirty Bird. Living in the UK during the explosion of subculture labels 4AD, Creation, Factory, and Rough Trade has also heavily influenced the Blesson Roy sound.
 
Think Like Spring was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown.
 
“I was alone in the studio adjacent to my home and had no distractions other than the feeling of being truly alone in the recording space, for days and weeks on end,” Borden explains. “The positive effect of the pandemic isolation in the studio was the time and ability to focus on the musical details in the songs, and extend the searches for the right chemical reactions that manifested in each track.”
 
Think Like Spring is a suggestion for a train of thought, which is focused on positivity and renewal,” Borden continues, discussing the album’s overall concept. “This is an especially important time for all of us to embrace the new positive and negative paradigm shifts with a sense of creativity and invention.”
 
About the album’s upcoming singles, Borden says, “‘Undertow’ took on a darker and lusher soundscape than I had originally imagined, having written that one as a Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake-influenced acoustic guitar song. As the recording unfolded, however, I realized that ‘Undertow’ needed a dark ambient soundscape rather than a stripped-down acoustic production.”
 
Borden explains that “Stays With You” was “a journey into dynamics with the chorus exploding out of the verses. It was a lot of fun and very satisfying to create the verse and chorus as almost two different bits of music that tied together emotionally but remained separate dynamically.”
 
“I ventured into some new areas musically,” he says of ‘Thousand,’ which “became more of an emotional, anthemic recording; a bit of a departure. It was thrilling to construct ‘Thousand’ and draw on unbridled emotion for that one.”
 
“I am pleased that a song with the characteristics of ‘Undertow’ sits next to an indie rocker like ‘Should’ve Known Better,’ Borden says of the album’s final planned single. “I have always loved records that have different types of songs with a fearless approach to production that serves the song not the style of music. The Beatles‘White Album’ is the pinnacle of this type of approach.”
 
Ultimately, Borden says that he tried to give each song a separate identity with a unique personality.
 
“I can’t say if I succeeded in this, but it was the way I recorded and structured the sound of each track. Writing and recording Think Like Spring was pure joy with patches of frustration that happen in any creative process. The songs and the creation of the recordings felt like a warm place in a cold and dangerous world.”
 
Think Like Spring by Blesson Roy is out now via Slow Start Records. Terry Borden is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Blesson Roy | Links
 
ASSETS : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL

Friday, August 13, 2021

“Calling your album ‘I Am Not Cool’ is probably not a great career move, but I’m OK with that,” Chris J Norwood tells Dallas Observer.

Album out Aug. 20, containing suicide prevention advocacy song “Good Guy With A Gun” about untimely death of Norwood’s father.
 
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Chris J Norwood as photographed by Alyssa Leigh Cates
 
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PLAY, POST & SHARE
 
Chris J Norwood | “Good Guy With A Gun”
 


[STREAM]: https://Fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-GoodGuyWithAGun
 
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Listen to “Good Guy With A Gun” from I Am Not Cool by Chris J Norwood at The Bluegrass Stuation or at the link above. Norwood discusses the song with Dallas Observer here.
 
​“I struggled with whether or not to include this song on the album,” Chris J Norwood says of his latest single “Good Guy With A Gun,” from the upcoming I Am Not Cool (Aug. 20th, State Fair Records), but I realized that losing a parent at a young age is always going to be a part of me, it’s part of my story, and it’s good for me to keep singing about it.
 
“As a country, we need to talk more openly about suicide,” he continues. “Especially as it relates to the gun debate and gun culture. I feel like suicide is often overlooked in the debate about guns here in America. We’ve been given fruitless answers about how to stop a bad guy with a gun, but little in the way of how to stop a good guy with a gun.
 
“I don't have any solutions to offer,” he concludes, “but my hope is to encourage dialogue, and my hope is also that anyone who needs help will feel the courage to seek it out. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255.”
 
Norwood points out the song's lyric, “Daddy was a good guy, and always did the best he could. He’d do anything to protect the ones he loved. That's how I chose to remember my father.”
 
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Chris J Norwood
I Am Not Cool
Aug. 20th, 2021
(State Fair Records)
 
 
Track Listing:
 
01. I Am Not Cool (Prologue)
02. The Final Girl (VIDEO)
03. Good Guy With A Gun (STREAM)
04. Creature of Bad Habits
05. Leaving Louisiana Behind
06. I Am Not Cool (STREAM | VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO)
07. 85 Feet
08. Grandpa Was A Farmer
09. I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart) (STREAM | VIDEO | LYRIC VIDEO)
10. Home Is You And Me
11. Love And Mercy
12. I Wrote You A Song
 
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Chris J Norwood | Live
 

Tickets: https://www.prekindle.com/promo/id/531433527733103985
 
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Chris J Norwood | “I Am Not Cool”
 
  

[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VpibyXuq-s
 
[LYRIC VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejVboc8Uj50
 
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-IAmNotCool-Single
 
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Check out the video for the title track from I Am Not Cool by Chris J Norwood at The Boot or listen at Americana Highways or at the links above.
 
This video was so much fun to make,” says Chris J Norwood of the clip for “I Am Not Cool,” the title track from his new album (Aug. 20th, State Fair Records). “Getting to wear fancy clothes, getting to pretend I have fans, and win awards. It’s a pretty perfect picture of my life and pretty perfectly captures the sentiment of the lyrics.”
 
Norwood’s wife and bandmate Carrie Norwood agrees, “Preparing for this video wasn’t too different from performing with the band. I lined up a babysitter, put on the only make up and dress I’ve worn all week, had a great time singing with Chris, and came back home to kids who will be waking up early needing breakfast.”
 
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Chris J Norwood | “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart)”
 


[VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=652HDyRNsFI
 
[LYRIC VIDEO]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfFLWwKWihI
 
[STREAM]: https://fanatic.lnk.to/ChrisJNorwood-INeedYouToQuitBreakingMyHeart
 
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See the video for Chris J Norwood’s “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart)” at Twangville. Listen at Americana UK or at the links above.
 
“‘I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart),’ a duet with his wife Carrie, captures the back and forth of a bickering couple,” says Twangville in its premiere coverage of the latest single from Chris J Norwood’s upcoming I Am Not Cool. “Yet Norwood sets the quarrel against a happy-go-lucky melody, making the song more charming than exasperating.”
 
Norwood adds, “Carrie and I thought it would be fun to tell the story of the song in a tongue-in-cheek modern day context. We thought, “What would it look like if you got to see the couple in the song’s intimate heated exchange play out over their Instagram stories,’ and we really cracked ourselves up trying out different filters for the video. Singing hot dogs will always be funny! Best viewed on a mobile device.”
 
About the song, Americana UK says, “It’s a sassy take on the form, with great lyrical hooks – who could resist listening on after hearing ‘I hope this letter finds you well but I need some time to myself… PS: here are my regrets’?”  Having reeled you in the Dallas based singer-songwriter makes the stay more than worth the while.”
 
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Chris J Norwood | About
 

Chris Norwood isn’t cool.
 
Or Chris J Norwood, as the Dallas-based singer-songwriter bills himself, is not cool.
 
So “not cool” that when searching for a synonym for “uncool” that starts with “J” in order to complete a lame joke, this writer could not find one.
 
Pretty damn uncool.
 
Norwood is honest, however, and in a world that becomes more cynical by the moment, the kind of honesty that he conjures and delivers so eloquently and elegantly on his new, very uncool, album I Am Not Cool (Aug. 20th, State Fair Records), well, that kind of uncool is... cool?
 
The album is the follow-up to Norwood’s much-praised 2017 debut record Longshot.
 
In addition to Norwood’s genial ability to say things you may not want to hear and leave you appreciating the experience, he is also masterful at a kind of tongue-in-cheek levity that is sorely missing from this genre.
 
There’s only two kinds of music / What’s true and what ain’t / It only takes three chords to set the record straight
 
Norwood sings these lyrics on the “I Am Not Cool” title cut, a perfect example of how his economy of words is quizzical, meta, and puts a smile on your face all at the same time.
 
But, wait, there’s more.
 
Norwood really gets going on the album’s second single “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart),” which is such a plainly evocative song title that other songwriters should be shaking a fist in Norwood’s general direction for thinking of it first. A universal sentiment succinctly stated.
 
“It’s a 10-year marriage kind of love song,” he says of the tune, and as if to hammer that description home, Norwood’s wife Carrie joins him on vocals, which adds a whole new level of “what is going on here?!” to the proceedings.
 
Further on, “Good Guy With A Gun” will remind listeners of the political rhetoric it references, but is more tragically tied to the songs from Norwood’s debut album, which dove head-first into his very personal story of growing up as a child of a father who died by his own hand.
 
“This song is about that,” he explains, “But more than that it’s about the ridiculous theory that the NRA likes to tout. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun? My dad was a good guy with a gun, so how were we supposed to stop him from killing himself?”
 
Once again, it is astounding how Norwood is able to take such personal matters, write about them with conviction and clarity, make it catchy and memorable, and make you feel like you challenged yourself and had a chuckle all at once.
 
Uncool? Hmm.
 
Frankly, Norwood says that claiming himself “uncool” may be an awful career move. “I’ll either make it or break it as uncool Chris J Norwood,” he opines on the topic.
 
But, the thing is, Norwood’s work is righteous no matter how it is perceived by anyone who makes judgments about “career moves.” This brand of vulnerable, self-effacing songwriting, salted with a bit of required brainpower... it’s unique. And it’s here to stay.
 
Maybe the J stands for “justified?”
 
I Am Not Cool, the second album by Chris J Norwood arrives via State Fair Records on Aug. 20th, preceded by the singles “I Am Not Cool” (May 21st), “I Need You (To Quit Breaking My Heart)” (June 18th), and “Good Guy With A Gun” (July 23rd).
 
Chris J Norwood is available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.
 
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Chris J Norwood | Links
 
ASSETS : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : SPOTIFY : APPLE : STATE FAIR RECORDS
 
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion | Contact
 
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : TWITTER : INSTAGRAM : YOUTUBE : SOUNDCLOUD : SPOTIFY : BLOG : E-MAIL