Finishing Up The Writing Process...

Hello friends!

It's been an exciting couple of days for us. Saturday morning we loaded up our Dodge Caravan (which Mike has nicknamed Vanna White) and headed up to my house in Southern Maine to work on the new music and see if we could begin to wrap up the writing process for the next album. This was the same basement in which we recorded all of Redivivus, so it was really fun and familiar to set to work on another album there.
We got there around mid-day, played through some familiar songs just to loosen up, then we got cranking on a couple new ideas. Before we knew it, it was 1 in the morning and we had written three new songs, tightened some bolts on all the others, and we were holding all the material for the new album in our hands: 11 songs that we are unbelievably happy with and excited to record and share with you all.


This album will not be Redivivus pt. 2. In the same way that we felt like Redivivus captured perfectly the place we were at a year ago, we hope this album does the same. With Rafaell on board as bassist and Mike moving over to guitar alongside Jared and me, we feel like we've really found our groove for the first time. Both Rafaell's and Mike's creative abilities will feature heavily on the new album, and we are made so much better for them. The writing process has been much more collective than Redivivus was. Unlike on many of the songs on the last record, which were often pretty distinctively "written" by one member of the band, this batch of songs was created largely as a group, with each member playing an important role in leaving their very unique mark on the composition. This is a more mature and more comfortable us.
Musically, this album is everywhere. It is very heavy. It is very melodic. It is very loud. It is very quiet. Certainly, it is darker and less predictable than our previous effort. We're excited. Come out to a show and see for yourself.

Our goal in writing a darker album is not, of course, simply to depress our listeners, however. The album is dark because it must be if it is to reflect the world we see. There are times when light falls on a patch of green grass or glints off of choppy water, but our world is full of so much that we don't know, so much that hurts and that confuses that, where we are and how we see things, we would be lying if we told any other story. We are not sad people, but we exist in a broken world. This album is a study in hope's interaction with despair. It is an attempt to convey the difference between moving "through" and moving "among". There is no door at the other end of the unlit hallway toward which the album walks. Only the memory of moonlit windows along the way.

We expect to begin recording by late August. Please keep checking back here, we'll keep you posted.

Peace and love always,
John and Glass America

P.S. Show at Hugh O'Neil's Pub in Malden, April 29, 10:00 PM