New Age Healers Release Video For Demolition Stories

Demolition Stories is an act of destruction in hope of creation. A band falling apart and coming together. Songs being flipped on their side, poked and prodded until something gorgeous emerges. We are first and foremost a shoegaze band with our feet firmly planted in front of ever-expanding pedal boards. We revel in reverb, distortion and layers of harmony. But there’s also a nod to the distorted rhythmic punk power of band favs like NoMeansNo and FACS, or the angular sounds of Slint and Jawbox. This is a band of music fans, trying to move the story forward. Some get it, some don’t. 

So why “Demolition Stories”? 

As we lost and gained members amidst the pandemic, we never stopped moving forward, tearing down and rebuilding both the band and this collection of songs. New ideas from new voices emerged and a theme of destruction-is-creation began to develop from a haze of hummed, fumbled words buried in a harmonic wall of noise. 

A long line outside a gun store juxtaposed against Black Lives Matter rallies inspired the psych-tinged critique of “Run for Guns.” Stories of tragic events passed down from mother-to-son informed the propulsive, bass-driven “Scars,” as well as, the sonic-wall-of-guitar of “The Search.” Love and loss peaked out of the acid-groove of “Melts Away.” Drifting insomniac thoughts of jealousy soaked their way into  “In Stereo” while a chuckle of a teenage memory (“she got her kicks from American drugs, I got my kicks from teenage thugs”) boomed amidst the smoke fueled Petty-meets-JAMC-pop of “American Drugs.” 

New Age Healers began in 2015 with the hope of making great art, building incredible friendships and sharing uplifting experiences, and it worked. While great friends (who are still pals!) have left the band, others have joined, and added a dimension of ideas I could never have expected. Guitarist Jeramy Koepping (Seattle shoegazers Voyager One, Grand Hallway with Tomo Nakayama) has not only added incredible guitar and keyboard sonics, as well as,  arrangement ideas to the songs, he’s also been the driving force in mixing and producing this album. So much of the sounds you hear are because of his tireless effort to present something timeless. Drummer Adam LeVasseur (Feed) has taken the simple drum beats I’d created at home and supercharged them with heart, soul and infectious smile. Besides his amazing artistry on the bass and incredible harmonies (“The Search”!), Allen Murray (Modern Athletics) has kept the trains running behind the scenes and has become our art director. Keyboardist Farkhad Saidmuratov (Kotlovan) recently became a US citizen (wow!!!) and has added soaring melodies on numerous songs. I cannot wait until you hear what we did on “Melts Away” among several of our songs. Finally, one of the things we wanted to add was female vocals and a feminine perspective. Besides being a thoughtful sounding board on the lyrical content of this album, Liz Green (An American Starlet) has added beautiful harmonies to the songs, taking them in a totally unexpected yet exciting direction. Her vocals on “God Be with You” will blow you away. 

There’s an act of destruction, and creation in each of these songs and hopefully uplift and connection via the music.  “Demolition Stories,” from six hearts to you.