ARTIST: Audrye Sessions
TITLE: Audrye Sessions
LABEL: Black Seal / Sony
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 215kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 48m total
RELEASE DATE: 2009-02-17
RIP DATE: 2009-02-17
Track List
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1. Turn Me Off 3:31
2. Perfect, Sometimes 3:56
3. Julianna 3:47
4. Relentless 3:28
5. The Paper Face 3:55
6. Awake 3:26
7. New Year's Day 4:52
8. Where You'll Find Me 3:38
9. Nothing Pure Can Stay 4:25
10. She Had To Leave 3:49
11. The Crows Came In 4:22
12. Dust and Bones 5:28
Release Notes:
Meet the Oakland quartet Audrye Sessions. Their self-titled debut on Black Seal
ù available early 2009ù is packed with polished, propulsive rock songs and
gentle, stripped-down tunes with the kind of ear-grabbing melodies that
instantly hard-wire themselves into your brain. Recorded with Andrew Scheps (U2,
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash) and Matt Radosevich (The Hives, Taking Back
Sunday), the album is anchored by Ryan Karazija's remarkable voice, which is
whisper vulnerable one minute, roiling with emotion the next and easily slips
into a smooth falsetto.
Audrye Sessions arrived when bassist Alicia Marie Campbell met Karazija, who was
gigging solo in coffee houses after his previous band split up. His early
musical loves included the Beatles, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Radiohead and
Oasis. But Karazija's true love has always been slow-churning melodies ("My
heart beats slow," he says), and when he hooked up with the Bj÷rk-adoring former
model Campbell, it was time for a change. Looking for more players, Karazija hit
Craigslist and stumbled upon Michael Knox, who answered a seeking-guitarist ad
by announcing he didn't have a guitar. The band's current drummer, James Leste,
has been part of the lineup since 2007 and Knox says they're an eclectic little
family now. The outfit picked up the moniker Audrye Sessions from a commercial
for a CD burner that happened to be on the television when a venue called
demanding a name.
Audrye Sessions shows off Karazija's unbelievable command of melody and the
band's ability to channel his vision into masterful rock songs. First single
"Turn Me Off" is actually darker than listeners would expect: "I was watching a
show where James Gandolfini interviews people that have come back from war,"
Karazija says. "There was one guy who lost his eyes and his life has completely
changed. He has these awful dreams and doesnÆt want to be alive. The song talks
about being so messed up that you want to be shut off." Karazija, who's been
known to text friends with complete songs he's composed in the car so he can
remember them, writes music before words, but knows his spontaneous writing
process works just fine: "I'll wait for lyrics to happen, and one day I'll find
something perfect."