In 2010 the Fort Worth, TX based band, Telegraph Canyon released The Tide and The Current on Velvet Blue Music. Whatever the expectations were for the album, none anticipated the level of success The Tide and the Current enjoyed. Following the release of the LP the band’s Texas shows brought greater opportunities as the septet found themselves in front of larger and more diverse audiences. Telegraph Canyon’s regional fan base quickly expanded. Over the next two and a half years the band toured throughout the U.S. and Europe on the momentum of that surge, while their songs, praised by Rolling Stone as having “irresistible choruses,” appeared in multiple films and television shows. Now, five years removed from the release of their sophomore album, the band prepares to issue it’s follow-up, You From Before.
You From Before is an intensely personal record, and is, at times, uncomfortable in its intimacy. “Every song is about a person or a relationship I’ve had,” says frontman (singer/songwriter) Chris Johnson, “many of them women, some romantic, some not. The songs aren’t all about breakups, but most of these people aren’t in my life anymore. Some of them were only there for a day or two but affected me in a huge way.” Since the release of The Tide and the Current, Johnson’s life has had it’s share of obstacles. A difficult divorce, a period of homelessness, living in an RV in Fort Worth, various line-up changes in the band, and the pressure to avoid artistic redundancy, collectively forced Johnson to navigate through an unfamiliar emotional terrain.
Throughout the writing process, the impact of the impermanence of Johnson’s daily life left him meditating often on death and the question of an afterlife. You From Before reflects the idea that some of us live several different lives on earth during the course of our life and wonders how that relates to what happens to us after we die. Themes of reinvention and reincarnation play throughout the album and culminate in a general attitude of perseverance. An attitude Johnson and the band have come to rely upon in their commitment to a lifestyle of creating and performing music together. The new songs are just like the last five years of Johnson’s life, lively and moody, cinematic yet introspective, and filled with the magic of uncertainty.
The music of You From Before, produced by Matt Pence with help from Will Johnson, both of Centro-matic, recalls the thick and weighty grandeur of earlier Telegraph albums, but also introduces a more groove oriented approach that borrows elements from reggae and soul. There’s lighter musical elements as well, what Johnson refers to as “humor,” evident in the excessive reverb used on songs like ‘Hung Up’ and ‘Lightning’ that he likens to old spy movies. Overall the music feels detached from the band’s previous twangy direction, and instead can be more closely identified with the rock genre. However, still present on songs like ‘Flood’ and ‘Honey’ are those unavoidably powerful choruses synonymous with the band’s catalog of music.
Telegraph Canyon is now playing on TMN Radio.