Album Notes

"The calm you bring inside lets me walk through the fire..."

From the ashes of burnt-to-the-ground anguish spawns newly found sincerity of Simple Shelter's debut album A Phoenix From the Ashes. A musical pictorial that embarks light, darkness, and the unknowing worlds within the mind of Joshua Bradford. With every track on the CD, listeners journey with the artist through avenues of hardships and emotional distress while touching down upon optimistic endings. "Embrace the idea of watching your house burn down along with all of your possessions in a moment of complete loss while turning around and walking into the desert. It's the light that derives from complete loss of which I create this album." Each song on the album embraces a unique musical genre along Joshua's dynamic vocal range and singing diversity; some tracks are all electronics while others are only guitar. All songs written and performed by Joshua Bradford plus a few featured artists.

The album embarks with Introduction: a song with a Portishead-like feel. The song that takes you down the rabbit hole and into the curious musical wonderland. The tempo and time signature changes show defined interest in music. System Error: a song that positively could have been found on the soundtrack of "The Labrynth" contains instrumentation similar to Duran Duran combined with David Bowie-like vocals. Quite possibly the most emotionally powerful song on the album due to great loss within the lyrics. "With every great loss gives birth to a journey." Through the Fires: Featuring Peter Distefano from 'Porno For Pyros' on guitar. A dark drum and bass melody with a sound similar to music from a Danny Boyle soundtrack (28 Days Later, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave). "Driving through a desert and having your car breakdown. You are forced to walk into the night, into the cold, and discovering yourself along the way." A Floor To Dance On: a very catchy club song with a sound similar to Depeche Mode meets Prodigy. The song 5 AM is a bluesy singer/songwriter lullaby with remnants similar to Jeff Buckley. Power is written and performed by Peter Distefano. Finally, Enemy Upon Us is more Skinny Puppy meets Dead Can Dance; swapping heavy industrial noise with melodic tribal rhythms. A few other featured artists to note that contribute to the album are Menace from 'Sex Art' and 'Filter' with guitar and drum tracks on A Happy Ending. Guest vocals on System Error and A Happy Ending by Danny Agobian. Alexa Holland (daughter of Dexter Holland of 'Offspring') contributes string lines on In Place Of You. Co-writing credits on Godspeed by Clayton Worbeck from Stayte.

"Cold Fusion made the wise decision to sign an artist who will soon have a large fan base. I promise, with its rich, progressive-industrial rock sound, Josh Bradford's Simple Shelter is going to be big!" (Adrift, Automata Magazine)