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Today we are celebrating here at A&SB. Why? Because it’s new release day! Air & Sea Battle have partnered with one of our generations greatest song-writers, David Debiak, to release the new Sleep Station EP: Songs From The Highway Volume 1. You can purchase it now on iTunes! A little about the EP from Debiak himself:

“The songs were written on the road in various hotel rooms, rest stops, stranger’s floors etc… We would meet all kinds of people and this EP follows the life of a recovering addict who is driving his truck accross country… the songs are more or less his thoughts.”

Below you can stream the 2nd track on Volume 1, Gracie In My Dreams, exclusively on A&SB & don’t forget to download your copy on iTunes or Amazon.

- Take a sparce, immaculately vocalized song, such as “Fallen” off of Sleep Station’s Hang in there Charlie.

- Read the album’s liner notes, figure out what the heck the song is about.

- Listen to the song over and over until you can hear the background atmospherics and evaporating strings of guitar extract in your sleep.

- Channel the story the original artist was trying to tell, adding what you imagine he left out for lack of space.

- Write this story in poem form. The poem must match the rhythms of the musical breaks:

So If I left you for the sky, space so dark that I might leave you for the cold – drift with the lost souls. My God, I’ve let you go, my heart so strong it never folds – If space is vast and now I’m trapped? Within these dreams, visions scream its Earthly things I long for – my wife’s touch, angels crush all my hopes, my only home, say it ain’t so, but I have fallen so low. Proclaim we’ve lost all our hope, Sunlight it blinds the mind, hit right between the eyes, somehow it won’t all be fine, somehow we won’t all be fine.

It’s these divine things – space is outta my dreams. Encompass everything I see – how could I ask you to leave? The streetlights make it blind, like the backs of my eyes. Is it the Sun on my mind or Man as Satellite? Destruction frees what I’d bleed all over the seams, my mind gleans what my dreams will live through he. Talk to my family if they’re sadly still swimming in grief, tell em I said stupid things so I’ll be dead in a week. Tell em space is as flat as a globe in a class, tell em man can fly fast but your souls are still trapped, tell em we was treated bad but the past is the past, tell em science moves back when we neglect the path.

- Find a remarkably slick, yet unpretentious producer

- Distort the track’s tempo to match your new vision, distort the singer’s voice to blend your visions.

- Record guitar loops, new synth tracks, etc. Throw most of them out. At least they taught you more about the song.

- Record vocals. Record vocals again. Have Gavin Werner yell at you, argue about pacing. Record Vocals again.

- Master once with a Mac.

- Master again on a PC.

Hope you like it.

02-oh-no

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With America shrouded by a thick noise of bombastic rhetoric that deifies the honor of war, its veterans quietly return home to deal with its silent pity. Sleep Station’s Blood of Our Fathers cuts through the noise of patriotic fervor, amplifying the quiet melancholy that too often marks a soldier’s return to a country equipped to deal with the myth of their sacrifice, but not its reality.

This 11-track LP is laced with catchy melodies that act as a thin layer of protection against the raw scars of families drifted apart and the stains of a comrade’s blood that can never be washed from a soldier’s memory. It’s understated and often ironically joyous instrumentation adeptly places these harrowing stories against a political climate that honors their sacrifice with cheap platitudes.

Penned by David Debiak, Blood of Our Fathers decries America’s halfhearted care for its veterans and their families in a folksy, somber voice that seizes the listener and demands their attention.

“I don’t like the Sun and it don’t like me. Each bullet has a name, which one is named for me? My wife is but a ghost, a memory, a dream, I sit and write my son to pray for me. It’s easy to kill when you don’t have to fight, as long as the blood of our fathers survives.”

As visions of home and family fade, Debiak’s well-crafted characters come time and again to the Virgin Mary for an absolution that eludes them. Meanwhile, their commander-in-chief prays for the strength to carry out God’s will.

“Like most writers, I’m simply telling stories.” Debiak says. “Some are good, some are sad, some are mine, some are theirs, and some are made up.”

This album is offered as a digital download exclusively on Airandseabattle.com.

Track Listing:
01. Brothers, 02. Can’t Shake This Town, 03. Blood of Our Fathers, 04. Dream of Mary, 05. America, 06. Leads Back Home, 07. I’ve Been Blind Enough To See, 08. Where Love Used To Grow, 09. Shadow of The Guns, 10. Oh Mary, 11. Brownstone Mill

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If you like what you hear, don’t forget to donate to the band:

We would like to present to you the video for Sleep Station’s song “Brothers”. This diy video was directed by David Debiak and artistic mastermind Stephen Wuensch. Though it comes across very simple, this video says more than most big budget productions. Except for “Thriller”. That video was awesome.

Don’t forget that you can download Sleep Station’s new album, Blood of Our Fathers (zip) for free exclusively on AirandSeaBattle.com!

http://www.dieshellsuit.co.uk/article_detail.asp?rID=3122
http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?reviewid=27816
http://www.patrolmag.com/arts/848/the-keys-to-our-fathers-7-storms-of-easy-blood