Rock quintet Downtread have returned with Stand YourGround, a follow-up release to the band's 2010 debut album 144. Their aim, to continue building a fan base drawn to the music they arerecording, and to simply provoke a response. Vocalist / GuitaristBrett Petrusek shares, "We fit in our own weird, restless littlespot. We want to provoke an honest response, whatever that is. Ifsomeone gets pissed or happy or bummed out – I don’t care, as long as the musicmakes you feel something. That makes the whole journeyworthwhile.”
On the latest leg of their ongoing journey, the band willcontinue to build an audience through appearances affording Downtread a higherprofile than the vast majority of their contemporaries in the development phaseof a career. In mixing prime support appearances alongside headlinedates, they will play in front of tens of thousands. Since forming in2007, and making their first appearance at the Dallas International Guitar Festival, Downtread has appeared on stages that cumulatively placed the band infront of over a million rock fans. They made the pilgrimage to perform atSturgis and Rocklahoma, while also taking the stage in front of CollectiveSoul, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Cheap Trick, Ratt, Bret Michaels, and manyothers. They relish the opportunity to connect with fans on the road, andthose travels have been the primary driver in a career that now boasts a largelegion of fans.
The unintentionally provocative title of their second album, StandYour Ground, was coined long before headlines ran rampant in newsmedia. Days before the album was manufactured, the tragic shooting inFlorida pressed the phrase in to the public's consciousness. Petrusekoffers, "It was pretty weird – purely coincidental. We finishedrecording the album, chose the title song and completed the artwork. Andthen all of a sudden the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law in Florida turns into a majortopic of debate, with people screaming about it on TV. For us, the phraseisn’t some kind of agro challenge or an excuse to whip out a pistol. Wealways thought of it as a patriotic and creative testament: if you’re ina position to stand your ground, it means you must’ve arrived in the firstplace.” He continues, "We don’t have any emphasis on being a politicalband, but you can’t go through a day without being bombarded by the media andworld crisis. It’s unavoidable. It all started with ‘Don’t GetWeak’ which is basically says ‘This whole situation blows, so let’s gettogether and kick some ass -- raise a fist and fight for what’s yours.’ Iguess that was a bit of a departure for us and it led to a few more tracks,including the title track ‘Stand Your Ground’ which sends the message ‘makethis nation strong.’ It’s safe to say that we don’t have uniformpolitical beliefs in this band,” Petrusek laughs. Bassist / VocalistRobert Berg adds, “Different band members are voting for different people.”
Produced, engineered and mixed by Jeremy Tappero, StandYour Ground is a locally grown Minnesota product: you can hearDowntread’s home-turf swagger fueling the recording sessions at Pound SoundStudios in St. Paul, and Greg Reierson nicely wrangles the savage beast duringmastering sessions at Rare Form Mastering in Minneapolis.
One song on Stand Your Ground seems toepitomize the collaboration: “I Told You” features a string arrangementby the band’s good friend Joel Kosche (solo artist and lead guitarist forCollective Soul), perfectly ensconced in an epic-scale sonic landscape.
Stand Your Ground shows Downtread’s soundgrowing and deepening since the 2010 debut album 144. The new album also benefits from a different recording method. “On ourlast album,” Petrusek explains, “we recorded the way most bands do. Welaid down basic tracks, then layered on guitars, then vocals – working on thealbum in its entirety. This is a really long process and it can tend to losemomentum. On Stand Your Ground we completed one track ata time, from start to completion. We’d get really pumped up, because wecould hear the final product of the first song before we even started work onthe second song. Each song stayed fresher and the flavors change fromsong to song. It’s a lot more inspiring to do it that way and we’re goingto keep doing it that way from now on.” Guitarist Teddy Gordon echoesthese sentiments sharing, "The big difference between this album and 144 isthe cohesion. On 144 we had all the basic pieces inplace – big heavy guitar riffs and monster drums – and we were simply trying toget it all out. On Stand Your Ground the band haslearned how to make it all click together. It’s both an ignition as wellas a refinement, and our vocabulary has grown. The same lineup has beentogether for a few years, and we’ve learned how to speak a language togetherbetter over time.”
Downtread is Brett Petrusek (Vocals / Lead Guitar), RobertBerg (Bass / Vocals), Teddy Gordon (Guitar), Marc Paradise (Guitar), EricDomagall (Drums). A complete itinerary will be announced shortly.
http://www.downtread.com/home.html
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