EXCLUSIVE: Downtown premieres Four Trips Ahead’s

by | Mar 16, 2017 | Culture, Entertainment, Music

Four Trips Ahead / Photo: Shervin Lainez

Four Trips Ahead / Photo: Shervin Lainez

Queens-based band Four Trips Ahead has already garnered much attention with their movement to reclaim rock music. Their lead single “Bring Me Down” hits close to home, using nothing less than pure hard rock, urging us to question authority and find the strength needed to resist. These are some underlying themes that are prevalent throughout the four-piece’s new album …And The Fire Within, which will be available digitally on Friday, Mar. 17, and will be released on vinyl via Astoria’s HiFi Records on Record Store Day, Apr. 22. One day before the vinyl hits stores, the band has a record release party set for Apr. 21 at Astoria’s SingleCut Brewery.

Today, Downtown gives you the first listen of …And The Fire Within. Four Trips Ahead vocalist/producer Peter Wilson has also contributed a track-by-track analysis of the album.

“Step Into My World”
A couple is pushed to their limits and they decide to take action. But are their intentions righteous or sinister? And will they ever be discovered?

“December”
When your childhood heroes are gone or compromised and you have to choose to live to fight for change or follow a hollow existence.

“Sea Song”
Where are our leaders taking us? And do we just sit idly by, or do we demand more? Using the familiar metaphor of water to describe our life’s journey.

“Good Times Goodbye”
Frustrated ‘everyday people’ feeling as if their voices are not being heard. A lamentation of the loss of freedom and progress — the angry calm before the storm.

“There’s A Time”
No more talk or distractions — time for action. Rise up!

“The Escape”
Two lovers, defying societal, cultural and religious traditions (often restrictions) and deciding they must flee, despite the odds, for love. All for love.

“Inside (Let It Out)”
Finding the courage to stand for what you believe is right — even when it is not the popular or conventional position. Letting your inner spirit free with no hesitation or apology, regardless of who’s watching or judging you.

“Run To You”
As your world crumbles around you, the recognition that you have a soulmate or spirit that will help you rise above it all is comforting. And empowering. A particularly-personal lyric for me.

“The Descent”
A paranoid, angry individual who finally cracks. He believes everyone is the enemy — his neighbors, his boss and co-workers, students at school, shoppers at the mall, strangers he encounters on the street — and he wants to know why his life is so unfulfilling and where it all went wrong.

“Bring Me Down”
Regardless of who or what oppresses you — politicians, teachers, employers, social systems, the media, family — having the inner resources to resist and reclaim who you are. Overcoming the spiritual weights that are placed upon us by those too afraid to truly live.

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