{"id":20820,"date":"2015-07-17T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T18:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=20820"},"modified":"2017-08-14T10:49:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T15:49:29","slug":"tmn-new-artist-priory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=20820","title":{"rendered":"TMN New Artist: Priory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"need-to-know-extralarge_1424905392039\"<\/a>Most artists don\u2019t start with a leg up or an unfair advantage; they are the bootstrap pullers who\u00a0 make sacrifices and put the long hours in before finally breaking into the public consciousness. Such is true for Priory, the duo consisting of multi-instrumentalists Brandon Rush and Kyle Sears, but their journey runs much deeper: both men risking failure and poverty, betting everything they had on their music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a backup plan,\u201d Sears says. \u201cWhich is good because if we did, we\u2019d more than likely have used it. We both had regular paying, steady jobs. Now we\u2019re here and it\u2019s pretty fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project got started by pure chance when both men found themselves living in rundown building where they made a bachelor pad (\u201cIt\u2019s been torn down now, but it should have been torn down back then\u201d) and bonding over their musical interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a recording setup where I was living,\u201d Brandon says. \u201cWe both had a ton of instruments and recording gear because we\u2019ve been playing in bands since we were 12. I remember the first time we played music together, with just two acoustic guitars, it was like, \u2018We\u2019re actually communicating.\u2019 That kind of interaction can be very difficult to achieve but we had it from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the boys went their separate ways for a stretch – Kyle to Seattle to do some nonprofit work; Brandon to Oklahoma to work as a journeyman farrier (the man who puts shoes on horses) – both made their way back to Portland to make Priory a priority, writing songs in a basement practice space, fueled by their deep musical connection and homebrewed beer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wrote an album\u2019s worth of songs in a matter of weeks and immediately began booking shows,\u201d says Kyle.<\/p>\n

With the help of a hometown label, the two put out an EP and a full-length, and spent the better part of two years on the road, juggling the touring life and their day jobs. But the more they played those songs in front of people, the less connected they felt to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had fun,\u201d Brandon explains, \u201cbut at the same time, we were touring on a record that we had outgrown. We felt like it was time to write more honest music.\u201d<\/p>\n

To do so, though, meant leaving the working world behind and quitting their respective day jobs. It was a decision they didn\u2019t take lightly, but one that was easy to make with the support of their families.<\/p>\n

While making the record, we both got down to our last $5 in the bank almost every month and would have to scramble to keep the ship from sinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle literally wears his struggles during this period with a big dollar sign tattoo on the crook of his right arm, as a reminder of how much blood plasma he had to sell to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe became accountable to each other,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery day we would work from 9AM through the night, and if one of us was late, it would be up to the other to give him hell. You can find excuses all day long to not go in and create, but we were always pushing each other. Once we committed, it was as if a wall had been removed. We felt free and our songs seemed to blossom from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And no one can argue with the results. Priory\u2019s forthcoming album is a lean, sinewy beast given strength by filtering neon-lit gloss of new wave into modern rock aesthetics.\u00a0 Dark, almost morose lyrics are interwoven through uplifting melodies, giving the album a strong sense of duality that further enforces their difficult upbringing.\u00a0 One of the themes of the album is \u201csurviving one\u2019s youth,\u201d a message that becomes clear in a song like \u201cFriends & Demons.\u201d\u00a0 The upbeat, hip-hop flecked track was inspired by Brandon\u2019s friendship with two brothers who died within a year of each other – one of a cocaine overdose, the other of a drug deal gone bad.\u00a0 The album is also about moving beyond one\u2019s troubled past, as the booming choruses and electro beats of \u201cWeekend\u201d play out as the soundtrack to starting over.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, \u201cPut \u2018Em Up\u201d stands firm in support of sexual freedom to the tune of wiry synth melodies and African-inspired guitar work. There\u2019s a soulful quality to be found within the album, as well, with \u201cLost Gold\u201d telling a Moonrise Kingdom<\/em>-like tale of two runaways, while \u201cBig Love\u201d urges listeners to embrace life before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

The album is an impressive enough achievement on its own, but made even more so by the fact that the two did it all themselves, with the only help coming in the mixing stages by no less than Mark \u201cSpike\u201d Stent, the renowned producer\/mixer who has worked with everyone from U2 and Madonna to Frank Ocean and Muse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe almost feel like this is our debut record,\u201d Brandon says. \u201cWe put everything we had into it and are so proud of what we achieved. We hope that means something to people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priory is now playing on\u00a0TMN Radio<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most artists don\u2019t start with a leg up or an unfair advantage; they are the bootstrap pullers who\u00a0 make sacrifices and put the long hours… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,1832,3402],"tags":[6679,6676,6678,6681,6680,6677,6673,106,6674,6675,3649],"class_list":["post-20820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-kfhs-radio","category-area-music","tag-big-love","tag-friends-demons","tag-lost-gold","tag-need-to-know","tag-putem-up","tag-weekend","tag-brandon-rush","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-kyle-sears","tag-portland-oregon","tag-tmn-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20820"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20826,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20820\/revisions\/20826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}