New Jersey alternative, post-rock band Gates has announced plans to release their highly anticipated debut full-length record, Bloom & Breathe, on October 21st via Pure Noise Records. Today, the band has revealed the album art, track list and release date and will be debuting new music in the coming weeks.
Co-Produced by Mike Watts (As Tall As Lions, As Cities Burn) and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Dye at Vudu Studios in Port Jefferson, NY, Bloom & Breathe is a dynamic record that exhibits the band’s maturity and skillful songwriting. Beautiful, complex tracks like “Not My Blood†and “At Last The Loneliest of Them†feature epic, sweeping post-rock soundscapes intertwined with vulnerable alternative rock vocals that provide a cathartic balance to the music’s overall ethereal feel.
After two well-received EPs (2011’s The Sun Will Rise And Lead Me Home and 2013’s You Are All You Have Left To Fear), Dye along with cohorts Dan King (guitar), Mike Maroney (bass), Daniel Crapanzano (drums) and Ethan Koozer (guitar) set to work on their new record in early 2014. Having previously done all the recording on their own, the band reached out to Watts who helped expand the band’s sound in the studio.
“It was sort of like Mike became the sixth member of Gates,†King explains. “He was really quick with everything and his insight made so much sense. He knew what amp and guitar to use to capture the tone of every part and I think it shows in the recording. It was nice working with someone we completely trusted who could really dissect the music from an outsider’s point of view.”
From the awe-inspiring opening interlude “Everything That Has Ever Been” to the final notes of the tension-shifting outro “Everything That Will Ever Be,” Bloom & Breathe is a sonic passport that takes the listener on an emotional journey that’s difficult to articulate via words. However, despite the impressive arrangements on songs like “Bloom,” at its core the album is composed of guitar, bass and drums with no extraneous instrumentation.
“I look at what we can do with three guitars as a challenge and that pushes us moving forward,” Dye says. “Instead of playing a Rhodes piano, I want to figure out how we can create that sound using effects. I think that limitation allows us to manipulate the traditional rock outfit because we’re forced to really mold the aspect of the band that defines us.”
Then again, for every shimmering anthem like “Born Dead†there’s a song like “Marrow” which introduces a new vulnerability to Gates’ sound.
“We’re obviously capable of making giant walls of sound, but we wanted to see if we could also write a good song that’s just a voice and an acoustic guitar,” Dye adds.
On the opposite end of the spectrum lies a track like the ambient, Deftones-inspired rocker “At Last The Loneliest Of Them.â€
“I’ve had the idea of this song in the back of my head for seven years, and for these guys to add their parts to it and have it finally come to life was such an incredible experience,” he continues, adding that the song has a heaviness that may surprise some Gates fans upon a cursory listen.
“We put everything that we had into this album, we questioned every note on the record, and we feel that this is the best result we could have made,” King summarizes.
Catch Gates performing a handful of dates this fall and follow the band at https://www.facebook.com/gatesnj for additional updates.
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