Indie rock band The Darling Fire is thrilled to share their debut single, “For The Loveless,” streaming exclusively on Billboard. The song comes from the band’s forthcoming album, Dark Celebration, out June 14th, 2019 via Spartan Records. Pre-orders for Dark Celebration are available now at spr.tn/darkcelebration and include an instant grat download of “For The Loveless.”
On the new single, the band shared: “There’s a certain segment of the Japanese population that isolate themselves from the world by choice, for months or even years at a time. They do this partly due to fear, sometimes due to mental illness and often because they simply prefer to be removed from society. “For the Loveless” was written for these confined adolescents and adults, the Hikikomori, but also speaks to anyone who feels particularly unique or isolated.”
They continued: “We had an awesome experience recording this song for our forthcoming album with J. Robbins at Magpie Cage Studio in January of this year. J. Robbins also mixed the album and Dan Coutant of Sun Room Audio mastered shortly afterward. We couldn’t have asked for a better result and we’re happy to finally be able to share a piece of what we’ve been working on for the past year!
Beginning sample courtesy of Eric Fensler.”
Spartan Records proudly welcomed The Darling Fire to its esteemed and growing roster last year – a veritable mosaic of indie notoriety featuring Jolie Lindholm (The Rocking Horse Winner, Dashboard Confessional) on vocals/guitar, Jeronimo Gomez on guitar (The Rocking Horse Winner, As Friends Rust), Steven Kleisath on drums (Further Seems Forever, Shai Hulud), Gregg Moore on bass (Slap of Reality) and Matthew Short on guitar.
After years of individual success in some of the scene’s most beloved bands, The Darling Fire was born of both deep struggle and deeper friendships. “Jeronimo and I had a particularly difficult end of the year in 2017,” says Lindholm. “We’d been wanting to write music together for awhile, but life kept getting in the way. The tough time we were having made us realize that life is short and there was no better time. We didn’t specifically set out to start a band, per se. It just began to materialize as things started changing, once we started to share what we were working on. It almost took on a life of its own and kept pushing us to move forward, to make this into a real thing.”
Looking at the The Darling Fire’s impressive roster, the band’s debut release, Dark Celebration, is in many ways what you’d anticipate – energetic, powerful, melodic, and heavy; however, it is far more nuanced than you would imagine. The collective sum of the parts and the alluring heart-on-sleeve lyrics produce a more intimate, spacey and bewitching experience – an authenticity that speaks to the true cathartic nature of the project. “The album is really a celebration of dark themes and experiences that have occurred in our lives both personally and distantly,” says Short.
Selecting the right producer to bring the Dark Celebration vision to life was of paramount importance. In all the band’s discussions, there was one name that seemed appropriate for a project of this magnitude – J. Robbins. Aside from the list of impressive production credits (The Dismemberment Plan, The Promise Ring, Against Me!), Robbins was also a formative member of some of The Darling Fire’s favorite bands (Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Government Issue). The result of this collaboration was a powerful coalescence of artistry and vision – the record that five artists spent their entire careers waiting to make. “This band feels like a family,” says Lindholm, “We’re all facing the challenges of what is to come together, with eyes wide open. Regardless of where we are in our lives, there is always the opportunity to start anew – to find fresh inspiration and kinship.”
Without evoking too many cliches, while the darkness can be disorienting, there is a beauty in its temporariness. It requires a great amount of courage to confront the unknown in its purest form, but rarely is regret the outcome of this process.
Dark CelebrationTracklisting:
1. For the Loveless
2. Nevertwin
3. Omaha
4. Catatonia
5. Silver Spider
6. The Constant
7. Saints in Masquerade
8. In Twilight
