Red - Declaration (2020)

Reaching. Yearning. Struggling. Wanting. Needing.The epic quest of
finding one's identity might be one of the most universal themes found
in the pursuit of art. The hopeless wandering replaced by the hope-
filled breakthrough has been chronicled time and again in painting,
sculpture, prose, poetry, film and, certainly, music.The men who make
up the rock band RED have been through those trials themselves.
They've taken those experiences to heart, mixed them with a plethora
of influences - be they observations on art they admire, or
communications with fans they adore - and now burst forth with a
dynamic new set of songs geared toward finding who we truly are,
inside and out.The time is now for Until We Have Faces."We had the
title before anything else," says RED bassist Randy Armstrong. "And we
didn't set out to make a concept record. But as I sat and listened
back to the final record, it's amazing how much of the content, pretty
much unintentionally, deals directly with the title of the record.
From start to finish, it's about all the emotions people go through
trying to find their identity."It takes some doing to meld divergent
inspirational resources as author C.S. Lewis with the stylings of
Sevendust and Slipknot. But that's exactly what RED has done with
Until We Have Faces - merge those ideas that inspire with experiences
that inform, and craft face-meltingly driving tracks as the end
result.From the out-of-the gate relentlessness of "Feed The Machine"
and "Faceless" through the roller coaster of emotion of the song cycle
of "Let It Burn," "Buried Beneath" and "Not Alone," to the hope and
comfort (even in the midst of mourning) of "Best Is Yet To Come" and
"Hymn For The Missing," RED compels the listener to walk through the
fire of confusion and pain to emerge confident and strong in their
identities.Simultaneously, the members of RED - Randy Armstrong, bass;
Anthony Armstrong, guitar; Michael Barnes, lead vocals and Joe Rickard
(named one of 2010's up and coming drummers" by Modern Drummer
magazine) on drums- have had to go through a season of rediscovering
who they were as a band, with Rickard as the newest member, both a
live force and contributor to the songwriting process for Until We
Have Faces.The result of that introspection is a cleaner, more focused
RED in the live space, and an injection of new energy in the writing
and recording situation, as Rickard made his presence felt with
authority. Many of the tracks on Until We Have Faces were based on his
drum parts, with the rest of the band and production team (with
producer Rob Graves again at the helm) building from them; something
quite rare in the rock realm, and certainly a working departure for
RED."Joe was writing an entire song the way he would hear it as a
drummer; structure, pre-chorus, chorus, turnaround, everything,"
Anthony says. "And I told him, 'If that's how you write, that's how I
write. If you give me your drums, I'll write over it.'""There's a
symmetry to everything now," Randy elaborates. "We've kinda settled
into this as four guys with a very serious focus. We get on stage, and
it just feels different. It's very clean and more intense. When we
started out doing this, we were punk kids who just wanted to make
noise," he continues. "Now we're really concentrated on being a great
band."So while the ferocity of the musical attack has been amped up,
so too the emotion and messages conveyed via the songs on Until We
Have Faces. The job and passion of bringing those emotion s to the
surface falls to vocalist Barnes, a quiet and unassuming man offstage
but an undeniable force on stage and in the vocal booth.He knows the
goal: connecting those hard-earned fans with the stories being told
through RED's music. "I like to think about our audience and what
they're going to feel the first time they hear the record," Michael
says. "What are some of the emotions that may impact them? I try to
get that emotional feeling stirred up inside me."In the making of
Until We Have Faces, Barnes was charged with quickly finding his place
within these songs, as accelerated recording time frames meshed with
playing packed shows didn't give the band and its oft-screaming
vocalist a lot of down time."We had so little time to get ready,
because we were all doing 10 different things at a time," Barnes says.
"One of the things I did on this record was to try to push my voice to
a whole other limit. It's a lot raspier, a lot more impactful style of
singing.""I just remember showing up at the studio, watching Michael
track," Randy says, "and on the last record, we did all the vocals
first, and the screams dead last, because we knew if we did them at
the same time, Rob wasn't going to get out of Michael what he needed.
"But I'd show up some nights, and Michael would be in the midst of
recording the entire song, and I told Rob a number of times that
Michael sounded really strong. His stamina is there.""There's one song
- 'From The Outside' - where the timbre of my voice makes it sound
like I'm about to actually lose my voice," Barnes continues. "I did
'Watch You Crawl' that night, and then I sang 'From The Outside.' We
never would have done that in the past, but I think it really adds to
the emotion of that song.""Part of me feels like this record would not
have been captured the way it was if the timeline hadn't been as tight
as it was," Anthony says. "I feel like the time pressures made us all
step up to the plate like we never had; yet another way we had to find
our identity through this project."Another crucial aspect of RED's
overall identity is the band's relationship with its fans. Through
feedback and support received with RED's first two Grammy nominated
projects, End of Silence (6/6/06) and Innocence & Instinct (2/10/09),
and the five-plus years of near-constant touring, the members knew
they could reach out to the fan base for inspiration and direction for
Until We Have Faces."When we first started writing songs for this
record, we put a post on Facebook asking what our fans wanted to hear
songs about," Randy says. "We got over 1,000 responses to that, and
just to see what they wanted or were struggling with was
incredible."It's part of that ongoing and ever-changing process of
trying to find out who you are, as the circumstances and definitions
of the world morph around you. And it's in that continuous examination
that new answers can continue to be found, even for a band that's been
asked the origin of its name a million times."People ask what the name
RED means and where we came up with it; it's a power color, a very
emotional thing," Barnes says. "And I think our music gets to the core
of that. We're really trying to flesh out and draw out those emotions
that may have been stagnant or just stirring up in people."The thing
is, the members of RED really don't mind the questions. And they're
inviting fans to help them find the answers. They know it's in the
reaching, the yearning, the struggling, the wanting and the needing
that new identity is formed, emerging forged and strong, powerful and
loud.There's little need to wait Until We Have Faces. For that time is
now.