NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Tracking the career of Aaron Marsh reveals a musical diversity rarely seen in artists today. Educated at a performing arts high school, Marsh learned horns and strings. He went on to form Copeland , which was a guitar-based rock band in their early days, taking influence from groups like Gin Blossoms and post-grunge bands. The band's trajectory strayed from rock to experimental electronic music, and Marsh took on other musical ventures, featuring on several projects for bands like Underoath and Anberlin and producing other artists, such as The Myrid, Anberlin , and This Wild Life .   I FOUND YOU DARKER THAN THE SKY ABOVE. In 2017, Marsh provided the sung chorus on the politically-charged Propaganda track, " Cynical ," a song that lambastes American Christian white nationalism. However, a month before Propaganda's Crooked Ways was released, Aaron Marsh released a new project,  Rabbit in the Snare ,  with indie rapper Ivan Ives under the moniker The Lulls in Traf

On the first season of the  Labeled Podcast , Aaron Marsh talked about his writing process for Copeland 's debut album, Beneath Medicine Tree . In early 2019, he returned to the podcast to talk about the band’s latest album, Blushing . If most listeners casually picked up the two records, forgivably, they'd assume they were listening to different bands. Beneath is a guitar-driven product of late '90s/early '00 emo rock. The album has mostly an optimistic tone. Blushing is a dark electronic-influenced album with darker lyrics. Marsh told Labeled host  Matt Carter that rather than writing lyrics that are easily pinned to real people, like his ex-girlfriend Paula (in the song " When Paula Sparks ") he doesn't "want to write songs about [his] private life." He says, instead, "I want to write poetic songs about my private life." The band's fourth album, You Are My Sunshine , does just that. Listeners don't know the deep sense of

In 2020, Stephen Christian released his fourth Anchor & Braille album, Tension .  When he released his third A&B project, Songs for the Late Night Drive Home in 2016, many of his fans were still mourning the disbandment of Anberlin . But starting in 2018, Anberlin had started to play one-off shows and even started touring the next year. In 2020, the band was supposed to announce a tour with Memphis May Fire and perform at several festivals. But in lieu of the pandemic, the band started a livestream concert series. While Anberlin was active, Christian released Tension, an album of the most straight-forward pop songs Christian has released to date.  TRY TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF TO A STONE WALL. Last year, I wrote about 13 love songs leading up to Valentine's Day. This year, I'm not sticking to that format, but as Valentine's Day approaches, I thought I'd make a few playlists compiling the love songs I've written about.  1. " Madness " by Anchor &a

I was first turned on to Propaganda on The BadChristian podcast . Back in 2014, when the podcast started, the goals of the hosts were to question the status quo of the evangelical church. In 2015, Propaganda first came on to talk about hip hop as social commentary and racism of the day. I heard the song " Precious Puritans ," a song calling out conservative Christians who elevate conservative figures of the past despite their spiritual blindness in matters of race. When Propaganda came back on the podcast, he promoted his 2017 album Crooked , an album which dug deeper into the political and culture divide, particularly with white evangelicals acceptance of the policies and personality of the forty-fifth president. WHY DO YOU LOVE YOUR GUNS THAN OUR SONS. I dug deeper into this song last year . Unlike yesterday, when I wanted to keep the focus on " Fast Car ," I'd like to take the rest of this post to explain my picks for my Black History Month playlist. I'l

In October of last year, The War on Drugs returned after four years with their critically-acclaimed album, I Don't Live Here Anymore . The title track and lead single features indie pop group Lucius as backing vocals on the chorus.  Like their previous works, such as  A Deeper Understanding  (2017) and    Lost in the Dream   (2014),  The War on Drugs is able to play two chords back to back for six minutes and create a song that you never want to end. Those two chords create a warm cadence that's like a bonfire on a cold fall night. And that's reason enough to curl up with a blanket and enjoy The War on Drugs all day long. I NEED A CHANCE TO BE REBORN.  However, unlike their previous works, today's song " I Don't Live Here Anymore ," to me, sounds like an anachronistic '80s or early '90s hit. It's kind of like what Mic the Snare said about " Blinding Lights ": "It's just like that one song. Uh? Which one?" Is it "

Ian Mahan grew up in Illinois taking piano lessons and taekwondo. Of the two, he preferred taekwondo, practicing to become a Junior Olympian and a regional champion. However, at the age of 16, Mahan injured his knee, and his doctor told him he had "degenerative arthritis." In his latter years of high school, Ian turned to music and writing songs. Learning guitar at the age of 18 helped the singer discover "his true instrumental passion," according to his Spotify biography. The singer moved to Colorado where he plays music in the local scene. YOU HATE WHEN I WRITE LOVE SONGS. Mahan played in several bands in college. According to an interview with Voyage Denver , in high school the singer was dating an athlete who didn't believe in his music career. In college, the singer says that girlfriend "shattered his heart into a million pieces." In 2008, Mahan recorded his first solo work, though it is not available on streaming services. Today's song comes

The fourth track on Kye Kye 's sophomore record, Fantasize , " Glass " continues to build the atmosphere on this Chad Howat -produced record. Back in 2014, there was still hope that Kye Kye could be the next big Christian band. Their 2011 debut, Young Love  landed them a feature interview in Relevant Magazine  and their follow up was well-reviewed in several Christian publications, including CCM Magazine . The band's story was fascinating for the Christian market. Siblings Tim and Olga  Yagolnikov grew up in a conservative Russian churches in Estonia before moving to the United States. In the Relevant article, Tim explains that the siblings' religious upbringing wasn't "really grace-centered, it’s really kind of more legalistic." Tim explains that their religious culture was "not for salvation, it’s for blessing or right-standing with God." TO HOLD ONTO AN IMAGE OF SHADOWS YOU REMEMBER. According to my Apple Music's "Replay '21

A few Saturday afternoons circa 2015-17, I went down a rabbit-hole, looking for the best Paper Route , Anberlin , and Copeland covers on YouTube. This was long after finding artists like Tyler Ward who covered pop music. I wondered if anyone had recorded high quality covers of my favorite bands. It turns out that there were a few . These artists weren't on the level of popularity of Kurt Hugo Schneider or Boyce Avenue . I had hoped to created a cover playlist of a Copeland album, but there weren't enough high-quality covers on YouTube at the time. Charles Angell's YouTube account has 7 videos, 77 subscribers, and the singer hasn't posted anything in 3 years. From a quick Facebook search, it turns out that Angell is still active as a musician, with a new haircut and some designer rims, now under the moniker of Snarly  (link to his social media presence).  YOU'RE STILL A BREEZE UPON MY SKIN.  Of the Copeland covers, Charles Angell's version of " Erase &q