On February 19th, Icon For Hire’s new album, Amorphous, will be released via Kartel Music Group. We caught up with singer Ariel Bloomer and guitarist Shawn Jump and asked them for five things they learned about creating an album during a pandemic.
Read their answers below and pre-order the album here:
01) The social isolation was challenging, but it helped us go deeper with our art. Not being able to go anywhere meant we could give our full focus to the music at hand, and that worked really well for us. Even when the quarantine is over, we plan to create similar periods of self-imposed isolation to allow us to obsess over the music making process.
02) Touring is the greatest thing in the world, and now that we can’t do it, we miss it more than anything. We will never look at performing live the same again, and the first tour back with our friends and fans will be like one big party.
03) We’ve been able to use the uncertainty and outrage of this unique time in history to fuel our creative process. Our music has always touched on life’s darker feelings like despair, frustration, and anxiety, and those feelings have been something in high abundance, not just for us but for a lot of people. We were able to channel that rage into the songs, and we expect a lot of angry, heavy music is coming this year as a result.
04) Things take a lot longer than usual right now. We had to mix our record remotely, which caused months of delays. Additionally, the vinyl manufacturing process is taking several weeks longer than usual, so we’ve had to get used to pushing release dates back and building in more time. Nothing is running on schedule right now!
05) The fans we’ve connected with throughout our career have become more important and dear to us than ever before. In a world where so many artists are struggling, we feel so lucky to have an engaged fan base to rely on, that’s been willing to support us even during this crazy time. We launched a crowdfunding campaign and were blown away by how many people wanted to get involved-it really touched us. We felt less alone during such an isolating circumstance.
