COLLIDER Debut Album Release. Issue #100

The blog made it to Issue #100! Cool. :)

This year has been a year of firsts. First time out of country, first time on the east coast, and this Friday with the release of the debut album from my band COLLIDER the first time I've released 2 records in the same year much less four months apart.


This Friday we'll be debuting the album with a CD Release show at The Showbox (Market) in Seattle with a 21+ show starting at 9:00 (doors @ 8:00). With the widget below, you can hear the entire album before the show on Friday and while you're listening I thought that it would be cool to give you some back story on the songs.




Overall, this album is a big noisy rock record. I feel it's a different sounding record for me in that it's painted with big brush strokes musically/guitar wise with detail not in the forefront, but under the brash surface. Lyrically, I worked quicker than I usually do and as a result was left with what I feel was not detailed stories, but instead big cinematic-like images. Let's get to the songs...

"BACKDRIVE"

This song was started with Collider guitarist Matt Edington providing the riff and he and I working out the rest. When we started I imagined driving a Mustang in the rain with a stickshift grinding gears as it shifted. It sounded raw and nasty and in the end we hope it captured that mood. Much of this record was written with lyrics being sung in practice that in many times ended up as the final lines. The "he" in the chorus was something I was confused as to the vagueness of and where it came from until the final vocal recordings when I realized that "he" was me...

"DOLLARS AND DIMES"

I go through periods of being really hardcore into Bruce Springsteen and the time around when this song came to being was one those stages. The riff sounded really organic to me; not like a rock song but more of a compacted little animal that sounded cool. Starting to sing over it, I liked what came out about little small towns (Bruce- style) and the evil that can exist in a Rockefeller-esque environment behind closed doors and the psychological impact of what it would be like to "punch the clock" the majority of your adult life. After listening to the final product, this song contains one of my favorite lyrics from the album after months of reading some cool books (The Secret, The Power of Now) seemed to seep in..."Die and find the reason why we're all around/feel the space and find we're all connected now/Come back and forget it again...

"SOUTHERN BELLES"

This song is a variation of a song I had written for Laymans Terms during the final days of the band four years earlier, and was glad it found a new life in Collider. For some reason this song reminded me a lot of summers at my grandmothers house and that's how the reference to "Forget-Me-Nots" worked it's way in. Yeah, I know my flower strains...what?
Anyways, this song is something I'm still trying to figure out as to what it means so if you can help at all, I'm all ears...


"LAST SUNSET"

Tidal Waves, Volcanoes, and Holy Ghosts all make of the lyrical landscape of the song that might not of been if I had been taking a bathroom break when Matt played the riff. Sometimes in band practice someone will play a little phrase that they didn't mean to and everyone turns around wide-eyed and asks, "What the hell is that?!?".

"Last Sunset" was one of those songs as Matt tuned up in practice and then played the opening chords in the song prompting me to spin around begging him to play it again so he didn't forget it. The song felt like a breath of fresh air and yet something that seemed we had always played before it's inception. Part dedication of reciprocating love and part ode to the temporary abandonment of emotional natural disasters, the song is what I feel is the heart of the album in many ways.


"GETTING BETTER"

If you're thinking that the song sounds like a car commercial once it hits the chorus...you're not alone. I even have my monologue written out where I equate anti-lock breaks to the comfort of knowing your children are safe if anyone ever wants to hear it. No? Okay then. Regardless, the song's psychedelia reminded me of a "Kula Shaker" probably deeply ingrained from working the winter season at CAMELOT MUSIC way back in 1996 when my manager played it on repeat every day. I love the vibe and came to realize the chorus lyrics directly seem to be a subconscious direct comment for around the time the band started gelling and literally was "getting better". Go figure, the megalomania knows no bounds...


"PERFECT DISASTER"

Another riff that I had laying around from four years ago (it pays to keep a record of unused material!), PD is worth mentioning as it had one of the hardest guitar parts I've ever had to play and sing at the same time. Maybe that means nothing to you, but I'm just saying. I love singing when the pre-chorus hits..."I believe that better days are not far away from us now/I believe the wood and trees hold a power somehow even now". I love technology, but maybe what we have here and have always have is what we've needed all along. This is coming from a guy who spends many hours online every day, but I digress...


"SUN TAKES YOU HOME"

This song is my baby. When I spoke of the world-wide RPM challenge I did in February 2008 (10 songs written/recorded in 30 days just to see if one could), STYH was one of my favorites as a result of the experiment and the Collider guys loved it too. I decided to make it a Collider song as we were going in the studio, needed another new song, and wanted to get it out to listening ears as soon as I could. The song was written in an hour, and as a result captures what I feel is a singular specific emotion lyrically that I don't feel I had yet achieved up until that point. I thought of what it would be like to have a partner you've lived with your whole life; someone who you shared everything with just leave this world and what someone would be left with feeling as a result. The entire song is a build-up to the final chorus and what I feel is a good end to the album. This song took the longest to do since it had to be "perfect" and of course ended up working best when we stopped trying to make it so. Like most things right?


Hope that gave you more insight as you listen to the songs. Feel free to email me at kylestevensmusic@gmail.com if you would like advance tickets for $10 before they reach the price of $12 the night of. Also, you can email me your request and the band and I will put your name on a list so the night of you can get the tickets at the advance price.

Thanks so much for reading for 100 issues which is maybe the only thing I've ever done religiously 100 weeks in a row! I hope they haven't felt like that many and that I can keep your attention for the next 100. By then I could be living in Guatemala in a shack selling mangoes with my wife on one side and my sherpa on the other. Probably not though, I'm pretty freaked out of spiders. We'll have to see...


Rock!

KS