NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Working with family can be difficult. Starting a band is like starting a business. You need to have the right people to work with to do the best at their jobs. Chemistry, mastery of an instrument, and stage presence is also important for band members. Family members as bandmates makes sense for young bands. Tim and Jonathan Foreman in Switchfoot are an example of a brotherhood creating a lasting band. There are other bands like Kings of Leon and NEEDTOBREATHE in which family is a source of strife. There are many examples of when family members don’t work out in the band, sometimes it’s clear from the early days like when the Hype ’s second guitarist Dik Evans —brother of David “The Edge” Evans —was dropped by the group that became U2 and the bass player of The Fray , Caleb “Cable Car” Slade —brother of former lead singer Isaac Slade —was kicked out of the band. I NEVER KNEW THAT EVERYTHING WAS FALLING THROUGH. The Fray’s debut single, “ Over My Head ” (Cable Car) gained radio

In 2005, The Fray scored their first hit with “ Over My Head ” (Cable Car). The song peaked at number 8 on Billboard’ s Hot 100 and topped several radio charts. While that song received critical acclaim from Billboard and Stylus Magazine , the piano-based pop-rock quartet band from Denver, Colorado, would be much less memorable today if it wasn’t for their second hit. After seeing the band live in Los Angeles, the music supervisor for the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy Alexandra Patsavas featured the song “ How to Save a Life ” in an episode in the massively popular ABC show. After the song’s feature in the episode, fans downloaded the ballad on iTunes.   I PRAY TO GOD HE HEARS YOU. The kickstart to the success of “How to Save a Life” has been credited to Grey’s Anatomy. But before the song was a single, it was the title track to The Fray’s debut album . How to Save a Life is peak mid-’00 piano pop rock. Every track is inoffensive and could be played in any coffee shop or grocery sto

  In 2018, I met a young man who claimed to like “Indie music. You know, like Coldplay and Imagine Dragons ?” I hope I didn’t roll my eyes in the middle of the conversation because it was extremely hard to bite my tongue when he had just named two of the biggest bands in the world. The kid in his early twenties talking to me in my early thirties at the time did, however, remember a time when calling Coldplay indie was more accurate. My first exposure to Coldplay came in 2001 when they released their third single “ Trouble ” in America. Specifically, I remember watching the music video with my dad on MTV or MTV2. While “ Yellow ” may be the more remembered single from Coldplay’s early days, I only have recollection of hearing the song a while after hearing “ Trouble .” THEY SPUN A WEB FOR ME. Coldplay formed in 1997 when the members attended University College London . After releasing two EPs and signing to Parlophone Records , the band released their debut album Parachutes in 2000

  OneRepublic had finished recording their second album, Waking Up , but had two more days with the studio. But the band’s bassist/cellist Brent Kutzle told lead singer Ryan Tedder that he wanted to stay in the studio to flesh out an idea he had. That night, Kutzle wrote the band’s biggest hit from the album, “ Good Life .” Waking Up’ s singles paled in the shadow of OneRepublic’s first hit “ Apologize ,” which reached number 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 . “Good Life,” the album’s third U.S. single, reached number 8 on the Hot 100. The album’s first two singles, “ All the Right Moves ” and “ Secrets ” failed to reach the top 10.  Besides radio play, “Good Life” was played in many television shows and commercials. This upbeat song has optimistic, sincere lyrics, making it refreshing among often negative or trite optimism in pop music. SOMETIMES THERE’S BULLSHIT THAT DON’T WORK NOW. I remember a time in the early ‘00s when so many bands and artists on the radio were Christian or Christia

Today we’re back to Nashville with the duet Escondido . The duo consists of Tyler James and Jessica Maros . The duo recorded their debut album, The Ghost of Escondido in a single day. They have released music between 2013 and 2018. The band’s song “ Darkness, Darkness ” has been featured in the NBC family drama This Is Us . Both working Nashville musicians, both James and Maros have a number of projects; however, Tyler James is perhaps best known as a former member of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. Many of the songs Escondido features Jessica’s lead vocals with Tyler’s backing harmonies and procussion. As many of the Nashville bands we’ve talked about, Escondido contributes to a scene of musicians who feature well in certain genres of television, but never blow up in the way that bands like The Fray or Snow Patrol did.  THAT’S THE OLD ME TALKIN’.  Yesterday I also posted a track that I first heard in NoiseTrade ’s Holiday Road Trip 2012 and it got me curious about which t