Though their most recent album, the excellent Celestial Frequency Shifter, was released near the beginning of the year, No Sleep Records’ own Anakin aren’t resting on their laurels. They’ve released a new single, “Sun-Kissed”, and packaged it with a cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Rocket”. Check out both songs after the jump, and if you like what you hear, be sure to support the band by purchasing on Bandcamp. You can also check out a little more about what band member Brad Chancellor had to say about each song below as well.
RELEASE
The truth about this release is that it wasn’t really planned. We recorded both “Rocket” and “Sun-Kissed” to be used as Kickstarter rewards. It wasn’t until they were completed that we started to think that maybe we should release them. We sent the two tracks over to the label and they hit us back that same day totally stoked to put them out.
I think we timed this release well because it’s almost like a sneak peek into our next album. “Sun-Kissed” was written around the same time as the other new tracks so I think anyone who hears it will have an idea about what’s to come. The new LP won’t be ready until sometime next year so this is a nice little appetizer to tide over our listeners until then.
– Brad Chancellor
ROCKET
We had decided years back that we wanted to cover “Rocket”. I think we took our time to tackle it because, honestly, we didn’t want to screw up the Pumpkins’ masterpiece. “Siamese Dream” is such an epic album on so many levels. We wanted to somehow make this cover our own but with the awareness to keep certain aspects intact. Simply put, we set out to pay tribute to a band that is very important to Anakin and we wanted to do it in a way which made sense to us. I’d like to think we were able to accomplish that.
– Brad Chancellor
SUN-KISSED
This one was basically a happy accident. The new album had already been written and we were deep into those demos but the itch wouldn’t stop. “Sun-Kissed” was literally written on a whim. We didn’t initially think it would be released because we had so many other commitments at the time but once it was mixed and mastered we were pretty much convinced it had to be unleashed. You can tell by the lyrics that it’s a simple SoCal love tune but the music has a heavier vibe and when those two elements are combined I lose my mind.
– Brad Chancellor
PURCHASE
+ iTunes – http://nslp.co/1KUHbqs
+ Bandcamp – http://nslp.co/1KUHbGJ
+ Spotify – http://nslp.co/1KUHbqt
+ SoundCloud – http://nslp.co/1KUHdi0
+ RDIO – http://nslp.co/1KUHbGI
+ GooglePlay – http://nslp.co/1KUHdhZ
