NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  " Cadence " was the third single from  Anberlin . Vocalist  Stephen Christian  talks about the band overhearing him playing the song on an acoustic guitar one day. Thinking the song was too mellow for Anberlin, he thought the song would be better suited for his solo project,  Anchor & Braille , but t he band loved the song and placed it as the penultimate track on their debut record,  Blueprints for the Black Market .  The song is inspired by Christian's time in college when he roomed with his brother, Paul. The brothers talked about life, philosophy, relationships, and God, and the song was a culmination of those late-night conversations. The song features some of the best drumming on the record. Before the band's  livestream  of the album  Nathan Young , who was fifteen at the time of recording  Blueprints,  tells a story about how producer  Aaron Sprinkle 's brother  Jesse , drummer of  Poor Old Lu  and later  Demon Hunter , was brought in to record drums

  We haven’t talked about the latest Anberlin EP, Silverline . Last summer, the band released their first project since 2014’s supposed-to-be swan song, Lowborn . This time, Anberlin has partnered with Equal Vision Records , rather than with their old family at Tooth & Nail . Rather than releasing a full-length record, the band decided to release it in two parts, Silverline and Convicted , which will arrive at the end of this month. On an episode of Lead Singer Syndrome , Stephen Christian said that the band had decided to release the album in two parts because he “didn’t understand the music industry these days.”  YOU KEEP GETTING CLOSER BUT YOU’RE SO DISTANT INSIDE. Anberlin isn’t the first band to release their albums as a series of EPs. When Mae became an independent artist, they released their ( m)orning , ( a)fternoon , and ( e)vening , which later combined into ( m)(a)(e) . Relient K released their K…Is for Karaoke record in two parts. Acceptance ’s latest record was re

We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception.  Randy Torres  formerly of  Project 86  works in sound design.  Dan Koch  of  Sherwood  writes music for adverting.  Stephen Christian  is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate.  The Fold  released two records on  Tooth & Nail Records , but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego's  Ninjago ,  for which they performed exclusively for seven years.  I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. Today’s song comes from The Fold’s 2013 independent record,  Moving Past.   “ Live Forever ” is the album’s fourth track. The themes on the album are somewhat humanist and somewhat Christian. The subject of “Live Forever” is not about one’s eternal resti

Today, we're listening to Tension by Anchor & Braille . Years ago, I wanted to hear Stephen Christian as a pop singer. I heard his vocal potential in the middle of Anberlin 's hardest rock. There were glimpses even on songs like " The Feel Good Drag ," showing that Christian wasn't just a baritone grunge singer. When Christian first released music under Anchor & Braille, the music was more acoustic indie on Felt , but started to gravitate to pop music. Anberlin, too, also released poppier music on albums like Vital . But 2016 saw Anchor & Braille releasing an electronic pop record in the vein of M83 and Washed Out  on Songs for the Late Night Drive Home .  1. " No Ordinary ."  Anchor & Braille's fourth record, Tension, continues Stephen Christian in the pop vein. The album's opener is a beautiful '80s/'90s-styled love song about not being able to sleep so enamored by the person that you love. 2. " Black Sea "

  I'm working on a new system for my blog so that I stop saying the same thing over and over again. I don't always have time to research an album cycle or the artist around the time of the album cycle, but I have written considerably about certain albums and artists. I want to provide links to those posts in album posts, like today's. I haven't written a lot about the tracks on Anberlin 's seminal record Cities , but it still is one of my favorite albums. In the future, this post can be a jumping-off point for other tracks on the record. I could write books on each track and my experiences with them, but today you'll just get a few sentences about each. Enjoy the album as it turns sixteen today. 1. ( Début ). For about a minute and a half, Anberlin introduces us to a dark world in an instrumental composed of city sound effects and noisy guitars. The song reminds me of Jerry Martin 's Sim City 4 soundtrack. (Début) leads into " Godspeed ." 2. "

With fans’ hearts freshly broken from the whirlwind year of 2014– when  Anberlin  announced their disbandment,  final album , and last world tour—lead singer  Stephen Christian  certainly wasn't walking away from music. First settling down in Nashville, he began exclusively writing songs for other artists. But in mid-2015 he released two  Anchor & Braille  tracks, " Detroit Stab " and " Fatal Flaw ." In February of 2016, Anchor & Braille released  Songs for the Late Night Drive Home , the third full-length project with the lead single, " Watch You Burn " and a lyric video proceeding the album's release. I WANNA WATCH YOU CATCH FIRE.  In interviews Stephen Christian has stated that Anchor & Braille projects usually reflect the style of music he's currently listening to. For the third installment, Christian talks about listening to  Washed Out  and  M83 , which can be heard in the chill, "late-night" synth sounds of the albu

In early 2012 when  Anberlin  announced that they would be returning with an album produced by  Aaron Sprinkle , longtime fans knew that they were in for a good record. While their prior major label releases had stretched the band and had proven how versatile their sound was, the band had not produced an album that matched the lyrical and musical depth of their fan- favorite,   Cities . 2012's   Vital   took Anberlin to both familiar territory and reinvented their sound.   I CAN FINALLY FORGET A PAST YOU SAY YOU NEVER KNEW.  Vital  is a heavier album than their previous two. But, up to that point, the band did very little with electronic music.   Vital,  however, opened to the electro-heavy " Self-Starter ," complete with an autotune chorus, somewhat reminiscent of   Avenged Sevenfold 's " Lost ." In fact, many of the the tracks incorporated electronic elements. The band admits to consuming a lot of   M83   at that time.  Critics and fans both loved  Vital .

  "I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I. Don't want a lot for Christmas." *struggles to change the radio dial amid gridlocked holiday traffic* "There's just one thing I need" *hurry up with my damn latte! I think I'm going to die. Why the hell is Starbucks playing Christmas music in mid-October?* "I don't care about the presents" *internal Elaine monologue 'I think I'm going to die in this department store. Ma'am, why must you spray the perfume so close to my face. I can't breathe! What if the earth begins to shake and we're stuck in here forever underneath mannequins and holiday shoppers and that damn  Mariah Carey   song stuck on repeat?'* "Underneath the Christmas tree" "No" *raising a strict finger to students who should be studying in the back* "Not before Thanksgiving." "I just want you for my own/ More than you could ever know." Every year, Christmas music gets earlier and earlier.

Brace yourself for today's song. On Anberlin 's legendary third record, Cities , listeners are eased into one of Anberlin's fastest guitar-riff heavy tracks with an atmosphere-building track ( Début ). The instrumental track feels like Jerry Martin 's epic Sim City 4   score, using guitars and sampled recordings to paint a dingy, urban landscape. What Anberlin creates with their third record is a portrait of wandering anonymously through bustling but lonely metropolises. In contrast to the "thousand names" lead singer Stephen Christian talks about in " Hello Alone ," the singer talks about the theme of the album as "Man vs. Self," and those introspective lyrics can be heard throughout the record. THEY LIED WHEN THEY SAID THE GOOD DIE YOUNG. But "Godspeed" isn't so much an introverted emo track as it is a hard rock cautionary tale about rock stars who die too young, leaving their fans wrecked by the wasted potential celebritie

Anchor & Braille has been Anberlin 's lead singer Stephen Christian 's side project for a while. Some of Anberlin's songs started out as Anchor & Braille songs. In 2009, Christian collaborated with Aaron Marsh and a few other hometown musicians including Louis DeFabrizio of Gasoline Heart , and released A&B's debut record Felt , an album that feels as if Christian were the lead singer of Copeland somewhere between their In Motion and Eat, Sleep, Repeat releases. Anchor and Braille's sound would vary greatly over their occasional four albums as well and the makeup of the 'band' would just become Stephen Christian collaborating in the studio with other musicians. You can tell that it's the same singer of Cities and Never Take Friendship Personal struggling relationships. SHE MAKES THREATS I HOPE THAT SHE SEES THROUGH .  Felt  was an album that appeared in my Junior year of college (one of them :) around a month or so before  New Surre

  When recording their debut record Blueprints for the Black Market , Anberlin spent time in Seattle writing the lyrics for the album. During their 2020 livestream We Are the Lost Ones , between songs and banter, the band told stories about where they drew inspiration for some of the most beloved tracks on the record. Viewers heard stories about using rhymezone.com to complete “ Cold War Transmissions ,” seeing their producer Aaron Sprinkle play a cover of The Cure ’s “ Lovesong ” at a karaoke night— his arrangement would end up on Blueprints, and a story about an arsonist devastating Seattle at the time of the recording. INNOCENCE DERAILED.  " Glass to the Arson ” is the fifth track on Blueprints for the Black Market. It's certainly not one of Anberlin's most poignant lyrics: it's not a storytelling song and the lyrics never made a deeper connection with me like later Anberlin songs; it's the passion in Stephen Christian 's voice along with the Joseph Mill