Air Review - How We Got By (2019)

After releasing their second album, Low Wishes, in 2013, the band built some real
momentum with solid shows, radio play, and several TV placements. Things were going
swimmingly, but it was time to press pause and focus completely on writing a new
record. They dedicated themselves to finding a new sound and a new voice. They
learned new instruments, spent countless hours working on ideas together in their
rehearsal studio followed by late nights on the back porch discussing ideas and
inspiration. They kept at it, but it wasn’t quite working. The songs weren’t taking the right
shape and they gave up on countless demo ideas until life circumstances and loss
started to take over.

In 2016 front man, Doug Hale and his family lost their foster child. Soon after, keys
player Richard Carpenter’s girlfriend’s mother died. Later that year, bassist Jeff Taylor’s
wife lost her father to a very sudden and aggressive brain cancer and guitarist Dragan
Jakovljevic and his wife dealt with infertility. The band recognized that their experiences
were a very normal part of life on the planet, yet they were heavy burdens to bare.
As the song writing sessions continued, the particular losses and struggles of each
member began to define the ideas and sounds that were formed in that rehearsal
studio. Often after a writing session the four would sit together on the back porch in
silent solidarity long into the night. Through all of it, they never took a break because the
writing and the time together became a kind of therapy—it was a place to share the
burdens together, to process the feelings and turn them into something meaningful.The
band found fresh inspiration from artists like Frank Ocean, Tame Impala,
Anderson.Paak and Niki and the Dove.

In early 2017, the band hired Denton, TX based drummer and producer Matt Pence
(Centro-matic, Sara Jaffe, Elle King) along with east coast producer Scott Solter (St.
Vincent, Spoon) to team up and help Air Review achieve a new sound. Together they
produced a 12 track album that takes notes from 80’s synth pop, R&B, and classic rock
—soaring melodies and good old fashioned guitar solos mixed in with analog synths
and auto-tune make for brand new territory for the quartet. The lyrics are direct and raw
—taken straight from the band’s experiences—ideas about longing, loss, hope and
resilience combine to tell a story of basic human experience.

The shared process of crafting the songs was an important part of processing a season
of life for Air Review. It truly is what helped them get by. Now, their only goal in releasing
these songs is that maybe it will help someone else process whatever life has given or
taken away from them.