Hot Water Music are pleased to present ‘Side Of The Road’ and ‘Chewing On Broken Glass,’ two new singles lifted from the Friday, May 10 release of Vows, the long-standing, influential punk outfit’s brand new album (pre-save/pre-add/pre-order HERE).
Following album singles “Menace,” “Burn Forever,” “Remnants” and “Fences” (stream HERE), “Side Of The Road” and “Chewing On Broken Glass” feature leads from vocalists/guitarists Chris Cresswell and Chris Wollard on each, respectively, and provide commentary on the unpredictability of life.
“‘Side Of The Road’ is a song born from the all-too-familiar feeling of life tightening its grip, and in some cases not letting go until it’s gone too far,” Cresswell says. “Sometimes along the way, the journey becomes the detour becomes the abrupt halt at the side of the road, and you’re left pondering the meaning of all your miles traveled.” Of “Chewing On Broken Glass,” Wollard says, “Written in darker times, it’s about feeling like you’re not in control of your life. And how it can leave you struggling against the bitterness that comes with it all.”
Sacrifice. Loyalty. Camaraderie. These aren’t just words, they are the qualities that have defined Hot Water Music’s songs, lyrics and ideology for the past three decades. However, instead of celebrating 30 years of existence with a nostalgia lap or formulaic album, the band decided to mark this milestone with their most ambitious collection of songs to date. Correspondingly, Vows sees the band — guitarists/vocalists Chuck Ragan, Chris Wollard and Chris Cresswell as well as bassist Jason Black and drummer George Rebelo — taking their pioneering punk sound to bold new heights via inventive arrangements, pop-friendly sensibilities and a new generation of musical guests that include Brendan Yates and Daniel Fang of Turnstile, Thrice, Dallas Green of City and Colour and Alexisonfire, The Interrupters, and Popeye Vogelsang of Calling Hours and melodic hardcore greats Farside.
In order to capture these songs, Hot Water Music chose to reunite with longtime collaborator Brian McTernan — who produced the band’s classic albums such as 2001’s A Flight and a Crash to 2002’s Caution as well 2022’s Feel The Void — which allowed the band to revisit the raw, guitar-driven power of its classic releases like 1997’s Fuel for the Hate Game and Forever and Counting while still capturing the current dynamics of the band. Not knowing what the endgame was, the band entered the process of writing these new songs with the simple intention of releasing music to celebrate this hard-earned milestone, be it a single, EP or full-length. What they were absolutely sure of, though, was that they didn’t want to make a new record just for the sake of it; this record had to be exciting, relentless and, above all else, necessary.
“For some reason — and maybe because this is such a huge milestone —subconsciously I was thinking, ‘Who knows what is after this?'” Ragan summarises. “I would love to say we’re going to keep making music for as long as we’re all around, but the truth is we never know when that’s the last session we do and I feel like I thought of that more than I ever had in the past.” All five members of the band put everything they had into Vows, an album that is less of a throwback to the past or look to the future as it is a pause in the present moment to acknowledge how far they’ve come.
Vows
1) Menace
2) Searching For Light
3) Burn Forever
4) After The Impossible
5) Remnants
6) Chewing On Broken Glass
7) Fences
8) Side Of The Road
9) Wildfire
10) Bury Us All
11) Touch The Sun
12) Much Love
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