Happens While You Blink by Melodrome

Drummer Matt Sloan acknowledged the wish to move to a more aggressive approach. "I think we were ready to move in a totally different direction. We always had an edgier side, that I think never really came out on the previous albums. It just felt like the right time to lash out and say "Here's the Rock."

Baier turned his attention away from global affairs for "Happens While You Blink" to the politics of the heart.

"Lyrically I turned back to a time when I was not so lucky in love, a time where I was going through a major break-up," he said. " 'What More,' 'North Dakota,' and 'Jagged Love' all talk about love gone sour and being really pissed about it."

The record includes makeup songs ("Crying Is Done"), straight-out love songs ("The Making Of"), and a song about traveling in time with your lover ("Yesterday"). Other compositions deal with more existential matters.

"There are the songs that are about self-realization and consciousness, like 'All the Same' and 'High Noon Breakdown,' " Baier explained. "These songs offer both sides of the story, one is about the confusion of life, one about being one with everything."

The Berkshires-based band remains committed to social causes and participating in a sustainable future. Their eco-friendly attitude is evidenced by an innovative approach Melodrome took toward packaging the new album. Mystery Train Records donated 250 recycled, 12-inch vinyl album covers to the band, who then had them cut down and sewn together to create jackets for the new CDs.

The band will be releasing the first 1,000 copies with "one-of-a-kind" album artwork where no two jackets will be identical. Said Baier, "Doing this cover is a small thing that we as a band can do to say to folks: 'Check it out. We tried to come up with a different, less harmful way to do what we do."

Sloan talked about the theme behind the CD's title. " 'Happens While You Blink' is a reference to all the subtle things that happen in your life day to day," the drummer said. "One moment everything is beautiful and perfect and the next thing you know everything is going down the drain. In a rock band you experience this stuff pretty regularly!"

Baier added, "For me, the title has more to do with my philosophical approach to life. Life happens while you blink, all the time, non-stop and it is silly to hope for something in the future that is somehow going to make your life better.

"Our brains are constantly searching, looking, judging ... 'Happens While You Blink' reminds me to take a breath and be present to life in every moment, in every word I write, just writing and being."

Dave Madeloni - Berkshire Eagle

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