Ed Sheeran has dropped a brand-new, surprise track titled ‘Afterglow’ especially for his fans – the track is available now on all DSPs (listen here). Alongside Ed’s self-created artwork, he has also unveiled a one-take performance video for the song, which you can view here.
Ed Sheeran says – “Hey guys. Afterglow is a song I wrote last year that I wanted to release for you. It’s not the first single from the next album, it’s just a song I love, and hope you love too. Enjoy ! Have a safe and happy festive break and New Year’s. Back to dad land for me now, ciao x”
Recently unveiled as the most-streamed British artist of 2020 in the UK, Sheeran – who is currently on his well-deserved break – wrote the track with David Hodges and FRED (the latter also produced the track together with Ed Sheeran). Co-production comes from PARISI.
It’s been four years since the world was gifted with a new Deftones album and with their ninth studio offering, ‘Ohms’ about to be unleashed this Friday [September 25th], we caught up with bassist, Sergio Vega, to talk about the album and so much more…
Despite the tempestuous events that are happening throughout the globe, small offerings of escapism are at hand to help some of us through the cluster-fuck that is 2020.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, you may have heard that Sacramento visionaries, Deftones are about to release a new album, ‘Ohms‘ this Friday [September, 25th].
Is this cause of a celebration? You bet your ass it does!
Speaking from his apartment in New York, bassist Sergio Vega opens up about the new album, his thoughts on 2016’s ‘Gore‘ LP, the inner workings of the and so much more…
OD -It’s 2020, the world is on fire and disease-ridden, but at least there’s a new Deftones album. With the restrictions on movement and gatherings etc, I know that the album was delayed from a June/July release date to September. During this time, was there anything out of the ordinary that you guys had to reconsider for this album?
SERGIO – No, fortunately for us the album was pretty much done when the lockdown began in the United States. We were in the final states with all the music tracked. Frank [Delgado – Samples, Keys] made a few extra trips to add some keys here and there and Chino [Moreno – vocals] did a few extra guitar tracks. I also made a few trips out there to work out some vocal stuff, but that was only a few weeks after the initial lockdown had begun, so we were in a really fortunate place when it [the pandemic] all got very serious.
OD – Did the lockdown itself inspire any quick decision-making when you all realised that it was going to have a profound effect on the usual promo activities that would normally happen when releasing an album?
SERGIO – We considered a few things but here we are and the album is due very soon. It’s been great to see the reaction online to the tacks that we’ve already released [‘Ohms‘ and ‘Genesis’]. It’s very much appreciated. To see this much excitement for a band that is about to release their 9th album is very rare [Laughing]. Especially in this day and age.
To be not only relevant but also ‘current‘ is a great feeling and one that we all appreciate very much.
OD – One of the things I noticed with the album is that it’s much warmer, with a lot of low-end with big, chunky riffs from Stephen. For example, ‘Radiant City’ and ‘Urantia’, did the tracks just come about that way, or was this the advice of Terry Date [Producer]?
SERGIO – I think this requires a kind of a layered answer here, so, I’ll try and keep it as clear as I can [Laughing]. First of all, we don’t really give ourselves much structure because we don’t want to set any kind of preconceived boundaries when creating new music.
The freedom from these constraints allow for ‘happy accidents‘ and inspires a direction to which we have not anticipated and this allows us to create something that is very immediate, cutting edge and fresh. It’s a system that just really works for us all and we’re beyond happy with the results.
Now, the decision to bring Terry back in on this album was definitely based on the history that the band have with him. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him from recording this album and it’s been such a great experience. We just knew that he was going to make a very bold-sounding album and he has absolutely achieved that.
Terry has exceeded our expectations on this new album and for me personally, it was a real joy to have the experience of working with him, with both vocals and bass.
OD – Speaking of Terry, how did it come about that he was gonna be working on this album, who made the first contact?
SERGIO – I think it was a kind of; “Right Time, Right Place” situation. It was a perfect storm with the timing between the band vs Terrys’ schedule and it just fit into place so perfectly. In some ways, it kind of felt that we were ‘coming back home‘ with the marriage between the music, the mindset of everyone, and Terry being on board etc..
That’s really where the personal level came into play with the album. There was a conscious effort to put everything into this and get the best out of the experience; from day one.
I think that one of the things that was very apparent was Stephen [Carpenter – guitars] brought back the personal connection of our friendships which was very much involved as a whole, during the writing process. Terry was an expression of that also. He is [Terry] just amazing at what he does and he’s an amazing person also.
OD – With regards to the writing of the album, Chino has said that Stephen was way more connected with ‘Ohms’ than that of “Gore” [2016] and also that there was a wider input from all band members. Was this the first album that all of you were contributing to the writing and if so, does that make this somewhat of a landmark album?
SERGIO – I don’t really know if it’s ‘landmark‘. I look at it from another point of view. For example, when we go into the creative state of mind and we are in our writing space, I’ll fire up the laptop/hard drive and we set up a separate feed for everyone to record all of our individual parts.
There was a bit of a disconnect with ‘Gore‘ but it wasn’t expressed on the amount of contributions from each of the band members, specifically Stephen. I think there was a disconnect because we would come in [for rehearsals] for a couple of weeks and it would be like; ‘work, work, work, work‘, then pause.
I have all the hard drives’ from those sessions and there’s loads of stuff from Stephen and everybody else. Abe [Cunningham – Drums] and I would trail through the audio and edit a lot of ideas. We were championing certain songs/ideas and the genesis of the tracks may have become lost, but I have an acute memory of where they stemmed from because it was very important to bring this record [‘Gore‘]home.
With ‘Ohms‘ we are all stoked. We put a lot of effort into this new album and tried to bring in the element of our history with each other, our history as friends. Don’t get me wrong, we don’t dislike ‘Gore‘, not one bit. It’s not like we weren’t getting along when that album was being created and I don’t like the concept that Stephen wasn’t contributing to the writing process, because it’s not entirely the case. There were songs that he contributed to in a later stage. People have these preconceptions about the roles in the band and its just not true.
We’re all writing all the time. I’m writing from home, we’re writing together, Stephen and Chino are sending over ideas to all of us and likewise. The truth is so much more cooler than binary falsities.
OD – The marketing for the release has been very coded and cryptic, was this just to give more anticipation to the marketing or is there a deeper meaning to it?
SERGIO – I don’t know if I’m using the term correctly but I believe the artwork is ‘impressionistic‘. We prefer to have visuals that leave the interpretation of the individual. We react to things in one way, that will differ from what others may feel, or understand.
The art director, [Frank Maddocks] will present us with several ideas and then we’ll all chime in and give our two-cents and then a little while later, we’ll begin to think about why we like it and what it may remind us of.
For example, some images could subtly remind us of Prince, or the ’80s or some black and white images, which kind of remind us of the early Punk covers etc. We make decisions on images, based on a collective feeling of nostalgia and joy.
We love looking at what people think and how they interpreted the images we use. With ‘Ohms‘ the marketing campaign was very interesting. We channelled our creativity in a new way because we had more time on our hands. We asked ourselves the question; “How can we have a bit of fun with this?” So, the parameters of expression were set in place and we began to role out this online campaign.
To be honest, this was something that I grew to understand and appreciate more. I’m used to the hardcore scene where everybody just puts things out, then play on stage and walk off into the crowd [Laughing]. There’s no mystery with that format.
It’s been a lot of fun checking out what people think about it all and how they are interpreting the images and information we release. I know it’s not the healthiest thing to do, but sometimes I’ll go on a Facebook group and read the comments [Laughing].
OD – Do you snoop around online and see what people are saying?
SERGIO – Yes, but not too often. You can let all your readers know that I’m watching [Laughing].
OD – Is there any particular track that you’re leaning towards as being a favourite on the new album?
SERGIO – Hmmm… Honestly, it never really works that way for me. I know that Abe has a thing for ‘Radiant City‘ because of the way the intro kicks in with the bass, followed by the drums. But for me, I tend to look at the whole album as one piece, if you know what I mean.
The songs work in sequence and it’s just kind of hard for me to carve off one in particular. Usually, when we have a new video coming out, like ‘Genesis‘ [released 18/09/20] that’s been in my head the last few days because I’ve been listening to is a lot.
But it doesn’t mean that I regard it as a higher ranking song than any of the others on the album. It’s just that it’s having it’s day in the sun right now and I’m hearing it a lot.
Actually, speaking of ‘Genesis‘, it’s fun for me to hear that in the wild because the track actually spawned from a little home-demo I made in the middle of the nigh;t when I was living in Harlem, NY.
I woke up with it in my head and I was like; “Oh, man, I gotta get this down. It could be really cool”. I programmed some guitars, drums etc and sent it over to the guys and it pretty much made it… intact! [Laughing].
It’s fun to hear because I can still reference my little demo idea and now I can hear how amazing it sounds in comparison. It reinforces the fact that it’s never really a song until all of us touch it.
OD – Can we talk about the re-issue of ‘White Pony’ aka ‘Black Stallion‘ and when we can expect to see that and also, what exactly will be on that album? Have you guys figured out a release date or is there any other additional information you can share right now?
SERGIO – No, I’ve no new information for you on this [Laughing]. I’ll be honest with you, the way things work with us is, there are ideas and then we figure out how to reveal said ideas. The fact that I’ve heard nothing on the reveal side of things on this [‘White Pony‘ re-mix], I would say that there’s no new info.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I could have missed an email [Laughing], but at this moment in time, there’s no update on when this is gonna come out.
OD – There’s a lot of synergy in the band at the moment, you’ve got the new album coming out, the ‘White Pony‘ re-mix the new beer etc. Do you feel that things are in a very good place right now?
SERGIO – Yeah, things are going well. There are five strong personalities in this band and each of us are very passionate about how we want to do things. So, its par for the course that there will be some friction at times and without that, you don’t get to elevate your game. These guys are some of the best people I’ve ever worked with and they are not only good at what they do, but they are very different from each other, have their own wisdom and experience and we all benefit from that together.
These are people who are genuinely interested in their craft, for example, Stephen is constantly challenging himself, as we all do. The work never stops.
OD – The North American tour with Gojira and Poppy has been postponed, will this tour pick up again when things are safe and also, can we see this line up coming over to Europe?
SERGIO – It’s too early to say right now because of what’s happening, but most of our dates are intact and have shifted over to next year. I was just talking to a friend of mine who got me thinking that larger events are going to be much more difficult to return, than that of the smaller shows.
My friend was talking about someone he knew who is a jazz drummer and he’s been just performing wherever he can, like in the park, or where ever [Laughing]. They literally have no stopped doing live performances during this whole lockdown.
So, the hope is next year we can get back out there and do some live shows. At the end of the day, it’s all about logistics. There has to be some kind of safe, working plan to get things back to where they once were, or even remotely close to that. All we can do is just wait and see what happens.
OD -Since your time in the band, is there any particular moment that stands out more than any other, a moment that had a profound effect on you and your partnership/friendship with the band?
SERGIO – Honestly, not really. We’ve all been friends for such a long time and when I came into the band it was under very painful circumstances. It was not really a happy feeling because obviously everybody was heartbroken with what happened to Chi. For me, I was just being a friend. I wanted to put my best foot forward and do the best I could for my friends; during a very difficult time.
Chi Ling Dai Cheng (July 15, 1970 – April 13, 2013)
We’ve had a lot of years behind us, and I think we all just knew that when Chi [pictured above] went down, we had to keep things moving and I was asked to step in. So, there’s never really been this celebratory moment, I just put my best foot forward and did the very best I could.
OD – Finally, can you please share one of your favourite tracks/videos?
SERGIO – Hmm, let me think. I’m stumped because some of my favourite tracks have pretty uneventful video. I’ll go with anything off ‘Loveless‘ from My Bloody Valentine. Such a great band.
‘Ohms‘, the 9th studio album from Deftones will be released via Warner Music on Friday, September 25th. Pre-orders are available here.
Riding high on the success of their recent single release ‘Survive’ which seemed to be an apt song for radios over the last few months and current single ‘Break the Silence’, True Tides are 3 brothers from Cork, Cian, Conor and Eoghan whose guitar driven synth pop has made them one of the most talked about acts in Ireland this year
Survive’ released in March 2020 hit the top 10 Irish radio charts, peaking at #7 after being playlisted on all major national and local radio stations across Ireland. Their single continues to receive regular airplay nationally with over 45 million airplay impressions on national radio + current single ‘Break the Silence’ looks set to overtake those achievements
The brothers made their national television debut in 2019 on the Late Late Show; had their single ‘Automatic’ reach the Irish top 20 radio play charts and received regular rotation on national and local radio stations for their other 2 singles; were playlisted on numerous Spotify playlists including New Music Friday UK; sold out their City Hall, Cork headline show with the 135-piece Cork Youth Orchestra and choir in December 2019 as well as supporting Picture This for their sold out show at INEC Arena Killarney and The Coronas at their sold out Olympia show in the same month; had their first UK television synch on E4’s ‘Made in Chelsea’ and played their first headline tour packing out venues around Ireland including Whelans, Dublin and Cyprus Avenue, Cork.
The band’s first new album in over three years is arriving next month.
Ohms is the California rock band’s follow-up to their 2016 LP Gore. The record, made with producer/engineer Terry Date, arrives September 25 (via Warner). Watch Deftones’ video for the new song “Ohms” below.
Last year, Deftones hosted their second edition of the Dia de los Deftones music festival. In 2018, frontman Chino Moreno shared the solo track “Brief Exchange.”
Ohms tracklisting is as follows;
01 Genesis 02 Ceremony 03 Urantia 04 Error 05 The Spell of Mathematics 06 Pompeji 07 This Link Is Dead 08 Radiant City 09 Headless 10 Ohms
The album cover artwork is said to be the eyes of previous bassist Chi Cheng, who sadly passed away in from a tragic automobile accident back in April 2013.
Pre-orders for the album are now live. Hook yourself up with a copy via this link.
Parlophone Records will issue a very special limited edition 12” vinyl version of Iron Maiden’s iconic self-titled debut album on October 9th.
The release honours both the 40th Anniversary of the album, which came out on April 14th 1980 and also the UK’s 2020 National Album Day, on October 10th – a longstanding local retail celebration of the long-player.
Iron Maiden was the album that saw the East London band start the journey that has led them over the course of four decades, sixteen studio albums, over 90 million album sales and more than 2000 concerts around the globe, to become the biggest and most acclaimed metal band on the planet.
It features original vocalist Paul Di’Anno and includes songs such as ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, ‘Running Free’ and ‘Iron Maiden’ that have long been considered classics in the Maiden canon and still feature in many of the band’s live sets today.
The limited-edition crystal clear vinyl picture disc is available to pre-order now via this link.
Side One
Prowler
Remember Tomorrow
Running Free
Phantom Of The Opera
Side Two
Transylvania
Strange World
Charlotte The Harlot
Iron Maiden
IRON MAIDEN – L-R: Dennis Stratton, Dave Murray, Clive Burr, Paul Di’Anno, Steve Harris – photo session in the London Dungeon London UK – 1980. Photo credit: George Bodnar Archive/IconicPix
During Tom Petty’s final interview with the Los Angeles Times, as the triumphant 40th anniversary tour with The Heartbreakers was coming to an end, he announced that his next big focus would be to finally revisit his 1994 masterpiece, Wildflowers, co-produced with Rick Rubin and Mike Campbell.
Wildflowers in many ways changed Tom’s creative life—as a recording artist, collaborator and band leader—while a profound, personal crisis transformed the stories and emotional thrust in his songs. Tom ultimately wrote more songs than he could release at the time. In fact, Tom, Rubin and Campbell completed the album as a double CD with 25 songs, nearly two hours of music, but his label advised restraint. Released on November 1, 1994, Wildflowers—a single CD with 15 songs, still more than an hour in length—was Tom’s most acutely confessional album to date.
The resurrection of Wildflowers has been a long time coming. In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone Tom detailed his plans for the reissue, telling the magazine, “I broke through to something else. My personal life came crashing down, and it derailed me for a while. But I was at the top of my game during that record.” Then again in 2016 on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio, he discussed his desire for a Wildflowers tour to coincide with a reissue. Tom had always intended to release the second half of the album—a collection he named All The Rest, featuring ten songs from the Wildflowers recording sessions that were left off the original version and five unreleased tracks (different versions of four other songs would appear on the soundtrack to the 1996 film, She’s The One).
Wildflowers & All The Rest, the long-awaited Wildflowers reissue and comprehensive collection, will be released on October 16 via Warner Records. Tom’s vision of the project is becoming a reality due to the commitment of his loving family, bandmates and collaborators who helped unearth many previously unheard gems. The compilation was curated by Tom’s daughters, Adria and Annakim Petty and his wife Dana Petty who call it, “Many, many hours of pure sonic joy,” as well as Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and was produced by Tom’s longtime engineer and co-producer Ryan Ulyate. Together they stewarded the warmth Tom created through his music and relationship to his fans.
Today, “Wildflowers (Home Recording),” a solo demo version of the classic title track, is premiering alongside a video featuring never before seen footage of Tom at his home, shot by Martyn Atkins during the recording of Wildflowers. The video was co-directed by Alan Bibby and Jonny Kofoed and produced by Assembly. Watch the video HERE. The significance of the song was revealed in David Fricke’s essay written for the liner notes of the collection: “It would be some time before he understood the complexity of ‘Wildflowers.’ It was, he realized, ‘me singing about me.’” This morning, Mike Campbell, Adria Petty, and Ryan Ulyate spoke with Fricke about the new collection and premiered the home recording on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio (channel 31).
Wildflowers & All The Rest will be released in multiple formats. Wildflowers & All The Rest—Deluxe Edition features 15 recordings made by Tom in his home studio as he was writing the album. These solo demos provide an intimate look at Tom’s songwriting process, where he plays all the instruments and revises lyrics as he works. The Deluxe Edition is rounded-off with 14 live performances of songs from Wildflowers, recorded on various tours from 1995 to 2017. Wildflowers & All The Rest—Super Deluxe is a Direct to Consumer Limited Edition set featuring Finding Wildflowers—16 studio recordings of alternate takes of Wildflowers songs as Tom, band members and Rubin honed-in on the final album.
The collection features incredibly special packaging across the various formats. The Super Deluxe Edition is the most complete; it includes an introduction penned by Rick Rubin, the aforementioned essay written by David Fricke—“Somewhere You Feel Free: Tom Petty’s Road to Wildflowers, ” lyrics to all the songs on Wildflowers and All The Rest, as well as an in-depth track-by-track by Jaan Uhelszki with contributions from Rubin, Ulyate, Wildflowers engineer Jim Scott, Heartbreakers live mixing engineer Robert Scovill, and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Steve Ferrone.
Adria Petty also oversaw the creative direction for the Wildflowers project, with original packaging illustrations by Blaze Ben Brooks, original cover beadwork by Maria Sarno, as well as Wildflowers-era photography by Mark Seliger, Robert Sebree and Martyn Atkins.
Tom Petty released 16 studio albums and over 180 songs over the course of his 40-year career. Wildflowers was the first album of a long-term renaissance. It was Petty’s fastest selling album and was certified Triple Platinum only nine months after its release.The album was always deeply significant to him. As proof, five of the 18 songs performed at his final live concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles came from the album. Wildflowers—his solo masterpiece, a personal triumph and the album Petty needed to make at that moment, at any cost—is finally here as he intended it and beyond.
Wildflowers & All The Rest format details:
Wildflowers & All The Rest: A 2-CD and 3-LP 140g set that features 25 tracks, with five unreleased songs. Includes lyrics to all the songs on Wildflowers and All The Rest.
Disc 1: Wildflowers (15 tracks, as per the 1994 released album)
Disc 2: All The Rest (10 tracks—five unreleased songs)
LP 1 and 2: Wildflowers
LP 3: All The Rest
Wildflowers & All The Rest—Deluxe Edition: A 4-CD and 7-LP 140g set that features 54 tracks, eight unreleased songs and 24 unreleased versions. The 4-CD includes the Rick Rubin introduction, track-by-track for all the songs included on these formats, while the 7-LP also includes the David Fricke essay and lyrics to all the songs on Wildflowers and All The Rest.
Disc 4: Wildflowers Live (14 tracks—12 unreleased versions; two distributed to Fan Club only)
LP 1 and 2: Wildflowers
LP 3: All The Rest
LP 4 and 5: Home Recordings/Demos
LP 6 and 7: Wildflowers Live
Wildflowers & All The Rest—Super Deluxe Edition: A 5-CD and 9-LP 180g Direct to Consumer, Limited Edition set that features 70 tracks, nine unreleased songs and 34 unreleased versions. Includes Rick Rubin introduction, David Fricke essay, track-by-track for all music and lyrics to all the songs on Wildflowers and All The Rest. This set also comes with a hardbound book, cloth patch of Wildflowers logo, sticker of Wildflowers logo, replica of “Dogs with Wings” tour program (the 1995 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers tour), hand-written 4-song lyric reprints in vellum envelope, a litho of new and exclusive art by Blaze Ben Brooks for the song “Only A Broken Heart,” and a (numbered) Certificate of Authenticity.
Wildflowers & All The Rest—Ultra Deluxe Limited Edition: A 9-LP Direct to Consumer, Limited Edition set (only 475 copies will be sold). The package includes the same contents as the Super Deluxe Edition, as well as an exclusive unique unisex necklace—hand-made by Maria Sarno in a faux suede pouch, an exclusive lyric book with the illustrations by Blaze Ben Brooks, an exclusive 7” of “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” packaged in a custom fabric bag with a metal Wildflowers logo as the closure—designed and made by Los Angeles-based, Made Worn.
TOM PETTY—WILDFLOWERS & ALL THE REST
1). Wildflowers
1. Wildflowers
2. You Don’t Know How It Feels
3. Time to Move On
4. You Wreck Me
5. It’s Good to Be King
6. Only a Broken Heart
7. Honey Bee
8. Don’t Fade on Me
9. Hard on Me
10.Cabin Down Below
11.To Find a Friend
12.A Higher Place
13.House in the Woods
14.Crawling Back to You
15.Wake Up Time
2). All The Rest
1. Something Could Happen
2. Leaving Virginia Alone
3. Climb That Hill Blues
4. Confusion Wheel
5. California
6. Harry Green
7. Hope You Never
8. Somewhere Under Heaven
9. Climb That Hill
10.Hung Up and Overdue
3). Home Recordings
1. There Goes Angela (Dream Away)
2. You Don’t Know How It Feels
3. California
4. A Feeling of Peace
5. Leave Virginia Alone
6. Crawling Back to You
7. Don’t Fade on Me
8. Confusion Wheel
9. A Higher Place
10.There’s a Break in the Rain (Have Love Will Travel)
REVOLUTIONARY DIGITAL CAMPAIGN ALLOWS FANS TO SHARE MEANINGFUL MOMENTS FROM THEIR LIVES INSTANTLY VIA CONTINUOUS VIDEO STREAM
“LEVEL OF CONCERN” SPENDS SIXTH WEEK AT #1 AT ALTERNATIVE RADIO
JUNE 22, 2020 – Twenty One Pilots have released the first-ever, never-ending music video with the help of their fans. Livestreaming now on YouTube, the groundbreaking video for Twenty One Pilots’ hit “Level of Concern” pulls in fan created content, in real time, live on YouTube. Powered by Imposium, every three minutes and forty seconds a new music video is created and streamed live to YouTube, containing brand new content from fans. Conceived by the band with award-winning storyteller and director Jason Zada, the concept behind the innovative digital campaign was to find a unique way to connect with fans during the pandemic, and give them an opportunity to share meaningful moments from their lives via the continuous video stream. Fans can visit https://loc.twentyonepilots.com/ to upload their own footage, which will instantly appear in the “Level of Concern” (Never-Ending Music Video).
Twenty One Pilots cryptically launched the project on June 12th with a 24hr livestream on their YouTube channel featuring a TV screen flashing mysterious imagery. Three million people tuned into the live broadcast with #twentyonepilots trending on Twitter for twelve hours, with over 150k tweets from the dedicated fans. From the stream fans were directed to https://usb.twentyonepilots.com/, the landing page of a complex and immersive Alternate Reality Game (ARG), which Zada developed with renowned game designer, Steve Peters. The goal of the ARG was to find a total of 20 codes, each one unlocking a virtual USB drive through which fans could download a zip file containing: images, videos, and symbols taken from the band’s personal phones – clues to deciphering the remaining codes needed to solve the game. Each drive contained elements leading to the next puzzle and each code became increasingly harder to solve as the ARG progressed. One code was hidden in the closed-captioning of the official “Level of Concern” music video, whereas another was hidden in the spectrogram of an audio file. Extremely elaborate in nature, one clue was concealed within a glitched photo file, that when opened in a text editing program contained coordinates to locations around the world. Inputting these coordinates into Google Maps let fans piece together another code. Serving as the centerpiece of the video launch, upon solving all 20 codes of the ARG fans unlocked a secondary page where they were able to upload their own unique content to the official never-ending “Level of Concern” music video.
Written and recorded amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, “Level of Concern” is currently sitting atop the Alternative Radio charts for a sixth straight week and has amassed 150 million streams around the globe. Originally released alongside an official music video directed by longtime collaborator Real Beer Media, Twenty One Pilots have also shared “Level of Concern” (live from outside), an alternate version of “Level of Concern,” featuring additional performances from friends and collaborators Paul Meany (Mutemath), Jesse Blum (MisterWives), and Simon Jefferis. The concept for the reimagined take developed as Twenty One Pilots went to work on recording a remote performance of “Level of Concern” for The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon: At Home Edition. Theperformance, which is streaming now on The Tonight Show’s YouTube channel, sees each musician delivering an open-air performance while in quarantine. The duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun will be donating a portion of the proceeds from “Level of Concern” to Crew Nation, a global relief fund for live music crews, which aims to help touring and venue crews affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Level of Concern” is the first new music from Twenty One Pilots since the release of their 2018 RIAA platinum-certified LP TRENCH. “TRENCH revels in the confounding genre-blurring and cavernous conceptualism that has defined Twenty One Pilots,” declared Billboard. Upon release Trench made a massive global impact with the RIAA gold certified collection earning the GRAMMY® Award winning duo their biggest sales week ever in the U.S., with 175,000 units sold in its first week. A true global phenomenon having surpassed two billion streams worldwide, TRENCH earned Twenty One Pilots Top 5 chart debuts around the globe including the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and The Netherlands.
TRENCH is highlighted bythe #1 Alternative singles “The Hype,” “Chlorine,” and “Jumpsuit,” the latter of which became the decade’s fastest rising song to reach #1 on Billboard’s “Alternative Songs” chart, and also earned the duo their fourth GRAMMY® nomination (Best Rock Song). TRENCH also features album standouts “Nico And The Niners,” “Levitate,” and “My Blood.”
Last year Twenty One Pilots’ announced that their 2013 LP VESSEL achieved a Gold & Platinum milestone with every individual track from the album receiving Gold, Platinum or Multi-Platinum certification from the RIAA. Twenty One Pilots’ 2015 LP BLURRYFACE was the first album of the digital era to achieve this feat back in 2018, making the duo from Columbus, OH the first artist / group with two albums to reach this landmark achievement.
Tower Records is Ireland’s largest Independent Record Stores. They have two stores in the heart of Dublin city. They specialise in music, film, hi-fi, merchandise and more. They are the proud stockists of Ireland’s largest vinyl selections, with one in each branch. Their DVD and Blu ray sections stock a huge choice of film & TV and they are stockists of a massive selection of CD’s across many genres, including the only extensive range of classical music in Ireland.
Established in 1962 on Dublin’s Tara Street, Golden Discs is Ireland’s oldest home-entertainment specialists, with 19 outlets nationwide and an online store as of November 2019. Their current offering includes Music on CD & Vinyl, Movies on DVD & Blu-ray as well as Audio equipment and accessories.
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GRAMMY®
AWARD-WINNING PARAMORE SINGER TO RELEASE DEBUT SOLO ALBUM
“PETALS FOR ARMOR” SET TO ARRIVE ON FRIDAY, MAY 8TH
Hayley Williams has announced today’s premiere of “Simmer,” the first single from the GRAMMY® award-winning Paramore singer’s hugely anticipated debut solo album. The smoldering track is available now via Atlantic Records at all DSPs and streaming services; an equally fiery official video – directed by Warren Fu (Paramore, The 1975, The Strokes) – is streaming now via the official Hayley Williams YouTube channel
Produced
by Taylor York, lead collaborator in the GRAMMY® award-winning Paramore,
“Simmer” heralds Williams’ upcoming debut solo album, “PETALS FOR ARMOR,” due
May 8th.
“I’m
so ready and so incredibly humbled to get to share this project,” says
Williams. “Making it was a scary, empowering experience. Some of my proudest
moments as a lyricist happened while writing ‘PETALS FOR ARMOR.’ And I was able
to get my hands a little dirtier than usual when it came to instrumentation.
I’m in a band with my favorite musicians so I never really feel the need to
step into a role as a player when it comes to Paramore records. This project,
however, benefited from a little bit of musical naïveté and rawness and so I
experimented quite a bit more. I made this with some of the closest people to
me. Their respective talents really shine bright throughout the record. I like
to think we all make each other better and the result is something that sounds
and FEELS exactly as I’d hoped it would. Now that it’s time to put it all out
there, I can finally exhale. I’m excited to let people in to experience a
different side of myself that I’ve only very recently become familiar with.”
“Simmer”
marks Hayley Williams’ first new music release since Paramore’s chart-topping
2017 album, “AFTER
LAUGHTER.” Highlighted by the gold certified “Hard
Times,” and singles “Told
You So,” “Fake
Happy,” and “Rose-Coloured
Boy,” the LP debuted at #1 on Billboard’s “Top Alternative Albums” chart
upon its May 2017 release while also arriving on the overall
SoundScan/Billboard 200 at #6 – Paramore’s third consecutive top 10 chart
debut. Along with its popular success, “AFTER LAUGHTER” ultimately proved one
of the year’s most critically applauded releases, with The Fader, Pitchfork,
Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard, and many more ranking it among their “Best of
2017” coverage.
Paramore
has accomplished a truly remarkable run of RIAA certified albums and singles
since coming together in Nashville in 2004, from 2005’s gold certified debut,
“ALL WE KNOW IS FALLING” featuring the gold certified single “Pressure,” and
2007’s 2x platinum certified breakthrough, “RIOT!” (with its 4x platinum-certified
hit, “Misery Business,” as well as the platinum certified singles
“crushcrushcrush” and “That’s What You Get”) to 2008’s worldwide 2x platinum
“Decode” (from Chop Shop/Atlantic’s chart-topping “TWILIGHT – ORIGINAL MOTION
PICTURE SOUNDTRACK”) and 2009’s platinum certified “brand new eyes” with its
GRAMMY®-nominated smash, the 2x platinum “The Only Exception” and the gold
certified “Ignorance.”
The
band’s RIAA platinum certified fourth album, simply entitled “PARAMORE,” made a
chart-busting debut atop the SoundScan/Billboard 200 upon its April 2013
release – Paramore’s first #1 album to date. Named the year’s “Best Rock Album”
by Entertainment Weekly, “PARAMORE” showcased a string of singles, including 2x
RIAA platinum certified hit, the top 10 “Still Into You,” and the #1 3x
platinum hit, “Ain’t It Fun.” The latter track proved Paramore’s biggest single
to date, ascending to #1 at Hot AC and Rock radio outlets nationwide, #2 at Top
40, as well as to the top 10 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” – the band’s first ever
top 10 hit on the overall chart and their highest peaking song thus far.
“Ain’t It Fun” saw Paramore taking home their first-ever GRAMMY® Award, earning
the “Best Rock Song” trophy at the 57th Annual GRAMMY® Awards. In addition,
Williams was named that year as the first winner of Billboard’s “Trailblazer
Award,” honouring her as a standout female artist who breaks from convention to
make a unique mark and pave the way for new talent.
Long
regarded as an exhilarating live act, Paramore has spent much of the past
decade-plus on the road, including countless sold out world tours and
show-stealing festival sets around the globe.
Williams
is also an accomplished entrepreneur, co-founding the vegan, cruelty-free hair
colour brand, Good
Dye Young.
