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Baltimore’s Brody Bond Premieres His Alt-Folk Album ‘The Mo(µ)rning EPs’

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Life is all about contrasts: light and dark, day and night, joy and sorrow, and it is these contrasts which form the basis of Brody Bond’s ambitious new double EP The Mo(µ)rning. Split into two sides, the twelve-track effort represents a story of rebirth and rejuvenation. One side, Mourning, is more darker themed, while Morning is more uplifting, drawing attention to these important contrasts and the process of disordering and reordering our lives as we go along. Joy rises in the morning, but as Bond discovered, joy also comes in the mourning. The Mourning represents a path of descent and disorientation, while The Morning is the pathway out of the darkness, fueled by faith, change, and acceptance.

In writing the EP, Bond was firmly focused on what he was trying to say, with any specific thought or intention towards musical styles put to the side. His main focus was capturing the mood around him and putting that into terms that would make sense to him, and hopefully resonate with others. What he ended up coming up with musically is an emotive pop-rock oriented album, with dreamy ambient textures, the intimacy of folk music, and samplings of modern jazz and soul. It’s a captivating recording from an artist that has really come into his own.

To help celebrate the premiere of The Mo(µ)rning, Bond himself has contributed today a special guest blog in which he discusses the EPs, the background and motivations behind them, and what it all means to him.

The Joy and Sorrow in Morning and Mourning:

“‘What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.’ – T. S. Eliot

The Mo(µ)rning EPs release are two companion six-song EPs, The Mourning EP and The Morning EP.

As a pairing, the project traces an unexpected and painful path as the picture we have of ourselves falls apart, and it explores what it might look like to move forward into a new, truer identity. To move forward with joy in the midst of feeling like we’ve lost so much reveals that the pain was also an invitation to reconsider what to hold dear.

We discover joy comes in the morning and joy comes in the mourning. This type of joy, joy that exists beside suffering, not without suffering, is a greater joy because it means we also become less afraid.

As we become less and less afraid, the more we can love ourselves and others better. Joy can lead to love.

Artwork for the ‘The Mo(µ)rning EPs’ by Brody Bond

This album was written to help me remember wisdom I want to recall in any given moment. It is language of hope that names the hurt, helps me be more of myself, challenges me to act with less fear, and ultimately invites me to love myself and others better.

There are lots of moments and lyrics throughout the record that serve this purpose. Two examples:
‘Without a death / There’s no resurrection.’ This reminds me that every end is a beginning. Pain and loss is an invitation to become a type of person who wants deeper, better things. ‘It is love / When we don’t need anything.’ If I feel like I need something from someone, like if they have power to say something about who I am, then I’ll be afraid of them… and act accordingly. And that’s not love. They are a threat that has to be appeased.

But if I’m not afraid of that other person, if I don’t ‘need’ anything from them, then I can actually love them. The encounter is no longer transactional. Even more, as I assume another person doesn’t need something from me for their well-being, I don’t have to act so fearfully that I might be perceived as a threat, either. Love casts out fear.

The album traces the never-ending pattern of how nature flows and how our lives flow: Order to Disorder to Reorder. The growth and evolution, the Reorder, that I’ve recently experienced and that this album sings about only came through pain and loss and feeling devastated, the Disorder.

I’m so thankful that I discovered the invitation in that disorder, and that this album emerged, instead of many of the other possible outcomes of what could happen when we feel so ravaged and feel we’ve lost so much of what we committed ourselves to.

The team of artists and engineers, led by producer, Jeremy Casella, committed to the artistic integrity of this record, and I have so much gratitude for their contributions to making these songs come alive. I didn’t expect any of this. But here we are.

May these songs be a blessing to others as writing them has been so healing and liberating to me.”

The Mo(µ)rning EPs Track Listing:

1. Original Invisible
2. If You’re Crying
3. Fall Before You Run
4. My Fantasy
5. Tomorrow Is Now Today
6. What’s In The Way Is The Way
7. Anchor To The Wind
8. Fly With You (A Song To Myself)
9. Someone Appears
10. Before Love’s Arrival
11. It Is Love
12. To Let The Love In

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