Trevor and I started playing songs we wrote together at open-mic nights in Provo in the fall of 2007. As we started jamming with percussionists, we began to realize that the guitar/viola/djembe combination had a unique sound that people wanted to hear more of. Looking back after a couple years of performing locally, I was finally asked how I would describe the overall statement of our band? My answer in one word: wood. Both the sound of the band (three finely crafted pieces of wood) and our lyrics are earthy and real. I think a lot of the appeal of acoustic music could be pinned on that idea. Nothing electronic. Nothing artificial. The acoustic musician can pick up his instrument, walk into the woods, or sit down on a sidewalk and play without any help from electronics. Just a man and his wood.
The songwriting lives in a very imperfect world. Things go wrong. You don't always get what you want. Mankind struggles on through conflict, striving to find peace and beauty. The album walks through our thoughts on the conflicts and struggles of our lives from the circular nature of relationships in "Deja Vu" to the balance between security and freedom in "Learn to Play" to the question of identity and acceptance in "Screens." The answer is learning to find beauty in all aspects of life, even the struggle. The slow ballad "The Sun is Setting On Us" comments on the beauty one can experience in the midst of loss. As we sing in "Beautiful Soul," "You see the silver lining in the darkest part of me." We all face problems. As we stand over the broken guitar and contemplate where to go from here, we must realize that life is "Fire From Olympus", a "blessing that we never could deserve."
Fans will recognize favorites from local performances like "More Cliches" and "Kill the Messenger." There are soft, contemplative moments, but mostly the album keeps an aggressive pace. We hope you rock out to it. And, at the same time, we hope you pause to think about the lyrics. We've worked hard on them.
So, it is with pleasure we announce the wait is almost over and we will see you in early December!
Mike
