With their debut album "What A Scene", Long Story Short wants to leave their mark on the map. After a solid year of song writing and recording, the band's debut effort is set to be released on Tuesday, December 21st, 2010. The band, headed by Dan Luka on vocals and guitars and backed up by Nicky James on piano, guitars and backing vocals has already made quite an impact with fans by releasing a select few songs on iTunes over the course of the summer, which resulted in all three songs receiving radio airplay in the Philippines. The album was produced by gold-certified record producer John Nathaniel, who also co-wrote several of the songs.
When writing for the album the band members stayed true to their goal of only putting songs on the album that had a personal meaning to them. "If you write a song and it does nothing for you emotionally, how can you expect it to do anything for the listener?", explains Dan, "we really took our time to write these songs. We didn't want to just combine chords and words, we want the listener to feel each song on the record as well as on stage", adds Nicky James. Indeed, having ended up with upwards of 30 songs during the writing sessions for "What A Scene", the group had to make some tough decisions on which songs were going to make the final cut.
The album features 10 songs and kicks off with the cynical rock anthem "Fall Awake", which criticizes the human tendency of never being satisfied and always wanting more. With lyrics like: "Everybody's lookin' for perfection/Only setting themselves up for rejection/Livin' in a world that's ruled by addiction". Dan recalls: "It was the last song to be recorded for the album. We wrote it in like an hour and we hadn't really done a song with that kind of a snappy attitude yet. So it was really fun to record."
Another such song is the energetic rock tune "The Truth Hurts" which deals with the anger, disappointment and the hurt of being deceived by a loved one. Screaming electric guitars are driving this song along to a heavy four-on-the floor beat as the words waste no time getting straight to the point: "You gave me your word/I gave you my world... I was in way over my head". When it comes to what inspired the song Nicky James and Dan are very much in agreement: "We are really proud of this song because when we wrote it it felt like we both already knew exactly what we wanted to say due to things we have both gone through in our lives. This was our chance to finally let those words out. And boy, did it feel good."
The piano ballad "What A Scene" is the album's title track and a very a personal song for Pianist/Guitarist Nicky James. With lyrics like "Memories crash in my dreams/like a siren in my sleep. Oh, What a dream." Nicky says "I wrote this at a very low point, when I was as vulnerable as I could be. This is, by far, The most personal and honest track on the album for me. We chose this as the title track after we took a look at the road Dan and I took to get to where we are. It's been bumpy and full of heartache and lessons learned. So when we look down on everything that brought us here, all we could say is 'Wow, what a scene.'" Dan adds "Nicky brought in a solid base of the song and when the time came to record it, John Nathaniel and I took what he had given us and gave it an ethereal feel and a profound sound. We're all very happy with how it turned out."
When asked about what influenced the sound on this album, Nicky James says "Dan, John and I all have very different but very similar tastes. The amalgamation of how we all envisioned this album's sound made for some awesome combinations. From the Nickelback guitar tones and Muse influenced vocal harmonies of "The Truth Hurts" to the Switchfoot riffs and The Beatles chord changes in "Fall Awake". It was like putting all of our favorite sounds in a blender and hearing the results. Even unlikely combinations like the organic mandolins and acoustics blended with the grungy Nirvana-esque chords in the song "Running From The Sun" make for a truly unique sound. I think I can speak for us all when I say we're so pleased with the way this album has turned out. Every song has its own vibe and feel and we absolutely cannot wait to release this record to the public."
The album will see a world-wide digital release via services such as CDBaby, iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic and many more. The band has further plans to release a limited edition physical CD in early 2011 which will feature some additional tracks and other bonus material. Stay tuned for more news at http://www.longstoryshortrock.com
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