DARKFIGHTER Rival Sons

• 1Mirrors05:01
• 2Nobody Wants to Die03:42
• 3Bird in the Hand04:28
• 4Bright Light04:33
• 5Rapture04:24
• 6Guillotine05:05
• 7Horses Breath06:04
• 8Darkside06:18
• Total Runtime39:35

Info for DARKFIGHTER

With their last album, Rival Sons from Long Beach landed a Top 10 success in Germany in 2019, and today the Californian rock band has announced their seventh studio album. "Darkfighter" is the seventh album by the two-time Grammy-nominated band. Darkfighter" was produced by their long-time creative partner, multiple Grammy winner Dave Cobb.

The explosive single "Nobody Wants to Die" provides a first insight into the album. The music video for the song was directed by Eli Sokhn and can be viewed below. The single is the first new music from Rival Sons since the release of their 2019 album "Feral Roots", which earned them two Grammy nominations.

Speaking about the new single "Nobody Wants to Die", Rival Sons singer Jay Buchanan says: "You live your life in the constant knowledge that the sword of Damocles dangles over your head by a silken thread. You're aware of your own impermanence, but you can't think about it all the time either - otherwise you go crazy. For a few years I worked in a funeral parlour, driving the hearses. There were days when I was at three funerals. Sometimes they were crowded, sometimes there was just me, a priest and a hole in the ground. In the end, it doesn't matter who you are; death catches up with us all at some point. That's what I have to think about with this song because it sounds to me like following that inevitable path."

On the process of making the album, Buchanan explains, "DARKFIGHTER embodies the cultural divide triggered by isolation, the pandemic, and the fact that the band that holds our country together is getting looser and looser. When I speak of 'cultural mitosis' or cultural division, I mean that new borderlines are constantly emerging. Our division is already well advanced and you can't cross borders without hurting someone. This has definitely influenced my writing process. We felt a responsibility to tell people something positive so that they in turn can tell something positive to others. We incredibly missed the live shows and that magical interaction that happens with the audience. When that was taken away from us, I felt the need to sing about really meaningful things. Our new album is therefore marked by important themes such as loss of identity, the art of keeping joy, and the recognition of light and contours."

Lead guitarist Scott Holiday adds, "Records are a healthy form of escaping reality. I hope this one takes you as far away as possible. We wanted to create a cinematic work with DARKFIGHTER. When the doors close behind you, you have to fully engage with something. That's what it sounds like when we have really found ourselves with our sound. We've moved away from our influences a bit, and in doing so we've become even closer to ourselves. DARKFIGHTER sounds like Rival Sons."

Rival Sons

Rival Sons
Released in June 2014 via Earache Records, Great Western Valkyrie puts Rival Sons freewheeling fuzz and improvisational stage ethos to wax and cements their position as America’s next great rock’n’roll band. With a ‘conscious decision for this band to be just what it is’ (Jay Buchanan) this album is more cohesive than any Rival Sons album before.

From the beach cities of Southern California, the time was ripe for Rival Sons. Guitarist Scott Holiday had long been searching for something that would fit his psychedelic vision and fuzzy garage rock tones, then things fell into place when blues singer/songwriter Jay Buchanan put the solo career on the backburner and gave rock ‘n’ roll a chance. Scott Holiday: ‘a random find on the Internet points me to Jay Buchanan. In 13 seconds I realize I have just come across the singer I've looked for over the last 10-12 years of my life.’ Jay was invited to record vocals on the band’s debut release ‘Before the fire’ ‘Singing On My Way in a single take. We never even ran tape a 2nd time. That was a first to witness for me. And so it was born... Rival Sons.’

Four albums on, with an ever-growing fan base the band go from strength to strength and have never looked back.

Emerging from a scene where over-production was commonplace, writing and recording in a hotbox of activity without prior discussion or preparation came to be what Rival Sons is about. ‘We have a reputation for recording our albums very quickly and keeping things very live - off the floor.’

As Holiday puts it after recording Before The Fire: ‘This is just the simplest way to not cheat ourselves or the listener. Rock and Roll can’t be over-thought, and if it is, it loses its immediacy and instinct … it needs to be a knife fight, not a choreographed knife dance’

The Rival Sons EP was recorded soon after Jay Buchanan joined the band and it caught the attention of Earache Records founder Digby Pearson who signed a deal in November 2010 that led to the recording of Pressure & Time in early 2011. The album was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Dave Cobb (who has worked on all Rival Sons albums) and released worldwide in May 2011. The band committed to creating an experience that closely matches the attitude and excitement of one of their live performances. Coming straight off a 4 week stint on the road, Rival Sons wrote, recorded, and mixed the album in just 20 days; ensuring a rawness for both the listener and the band; explains Buchanan, ‘in the code of the Samurai, any decision must be made between 3 and 5 breaths … writing by that code forces us to act, go with our instincts and really, truly listen to each other. Creatively, you’re bringing your most immediate instincts.’

Pressure & Time opened a door to Europe where from their first European show at Camden Barfly to Shepherds Bush Empire in 2012, there has hardly been a show that was not sold out. The band quickly picked up European shows and festivals and became known for a wild improvisational live show.

Jay Buchanan “Each one of us is coming at this thing we call a band for different reasons and with a very different approach. It's an unlikely collective really but when it all comes together there's an energy I don't see happening anywhere else. If rock'n'roll is our base form I would say, that transparent energy in our performance and solid writing are our highest functions as a band. Give everything you have, every time. Each time you approach that stage, every night, you're waiting for someone to call you out for the fraud you really are so you empty your pockets and give them everything you have inside of you just trying to prove that you've come there for a greater reason than just wanting to be the center of someone's attention. Music is fucking heavy business.”

Seeing the creative process as a snapshot, only spending less than a month in the studio for each album, writing and recording live under one roof to keeps the process raw but also grueling. Straight off the back of more touring early 2012 the band went into Honey Pye studios in Nashville in February 2012 for 22 days to write and record their new album again with Dave Cobb and Vance Powell (Jack White, Kings of Leon etc). Experimenting with old analog equipment from legendary studios that producer Dave Cobb had collected the band found a warmth in their sound for the album that would be Head Down.

With growing accolades and chart success the band were presented with “Breakthrough Artist” award by Vic Reeves at the Classic Rock awards at the end of 2012, they also graced the cover of the magazine as well as several other publications.

Between albums Rival Sons have a taxing tour schedule, original bassist Robin Everhart left the band in August 2013, finding that the touring life didn’t agree with him. Playing club shows, stadiums and festivals, the band find new fans wherever they are. Continuing with their touring schedule long-time friend of the band Dave Beste (Maroon5, Rocco Deluca and The Burden) joined on bass before the band returned to the studio January 2014 again with producer Dave Cobb in Nashville, the band recorded their 5th release ‘Great Western Valkyrie’ “Opting to keep the sound in-tact and very accurate as to deliver to the listener exactly what was happening in the room when we put it down. We also felt a big desire to make a few left turns musically on this record - which we did. You will get the rock n roll…but on several tracks you get something much more hybrid.” – Scott Holiday

Called ‘A vital force in the modern age’ by The Guardian, Rival Sons often approach their music as if they were on a mission. Drummer Michael Miley: ‘We’re pushing the envelope of modern music; forcing it to stay awake and active through instinctive and honest music delivered with a blistering live performance’

‘In a ideal world, I want our records and live shows to envelop the listener to the level of forgetting daily worries. Just be free and lose (or FIND) yourself in the music.’ – Scott Holiday

This album contains no booklet.