Shape & Destroy Ruston Kelly

• 1 In The Blue 02:33
• 2 Radio Cloud 03:32
• 3 Alive 02:44
• 4 Changes 04:39
• 5 Mid-Morning Lament 05:13
• 6 Brave 03:13
• 7 Clean 03:17
• 8 Rubber 03:18
• 9 Jubilee 03:38
• 10 Closest Thing 02:10
• 11 Pressure 02:31
• 12 Under The Sun 03:22
• 13 Hallelujah Anyway 01:32
• Total Runtime 41:42

Info for Shape & Destroy

"Shape & Destroy" wurde von Kelly und seinem langjährigen Kollaborateur Jarrad K (Kate Nash, Weezer) produziert und in den Dreamland Recording Studios im Bundesstaat New York aufgenommen. Es dokumentiert Kellys Weg seit seinen Suchtproblemen und die Aufrechterhaltung seiner Nüchternheit und die Auseinandersetzung mit seiner Vergangenheit. Er begegnet diesen Erfahrungen und Rückschlägen mit ungeschminkter Ehrlichkeit, Anmut und Überzeugung in dreizehn neuen Songs, darunter "Brave", das Anfang des Jahres erschienen ist.

Im Hinblick auf das Album teilt Kelly mit: "Die Aufnahme dieser Platte hat mich definitiv gelehrt, dass ich nicht egoistisch sein will: Ich möchte etwas kanalisieren, das größer ist als ich selbst, und mich dem Prozess so vollständig wie möglich hingeben, denn diese Lieder werden auch zur Geschichte derer, der sie hören. Was auch immer jemand davon haben mag, wenn er diese Platte hört und hört, wie ich mich auf diese Weise ausdrücke, es gehört vollständig ihm."

Zusätzlich zu Kelly (Gesang, Akustikgitarre, E-Gitarre, Klavier, Schlagzeug, Sandpaper, Mandoline) und Jarrad K (E-Gitarre, 12-saitige Akustikgitarre, Klavier, Rhodes, Hammond M3, Schlagzeug, Student bells, Backgound Vocals), sind auf dem Album außerdem Kellys Vater Tim "TK" Kelly (Steel-Gitarre, Background-Vocals), Eli Beaird (Bass, Background-Vocals) und Eric Slick (Schlagzeug, Percussion, Background-Vocals) sowie die Background-Vocals Special Guests Gena Johnson, Abby Kelly und Kacey Musgraves zu hören.

"Shape & Destroy" markiert einen weiteren wichtigen Moment für den in Nashville lebenden Künstler, der 2018 sein Debütalbum "Dying Star" veröffentlichte. "Dying Star", das ebenfalls von Kelly und Jarrad K produziert wurde, debütierte unter großem Beifall der Kritiker und landete auf mehreren "Best of 2018"-Listen, darunter Rolling Stone, Paste, UPROXX, American Songwriter und NPR Music, die erklärten: "Kelly digs down deep on Dying Star to fearlessly put forth a set of songs steeped in emotional twists, turns and complications…This here is powerful stuff.".

Außerdem verkündete Rolling Stone: "one of the most magnetic releases of the year,", und The Fader lobte “a uniquely emotional and raw collection about our ability to build a new life from the ashes".

Kelly veröffentlichte außerdem "Dirt Emo Vol. 1" im letzten Herbst - ein Projekt, das aus acht neuen Covers seiner Lieblings-Emo-Songs besteht, darunter "Screaming Infidelities" von Dashboard Confessional mit dem Sänger der Band, Chris Carrabba, im Duett "Teenage Dirtbag" von Wheatus, "Weeping Willow" der Carter Family und "All Too Well" von Taylor Swift, das von Swift selbst gelobt wurde.

Ruston Kelly, vocals, acoustic guitar, high-strung acoustic, electric guitar, piano, percussion
Jarrad K, electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, piano, Rhodes, Hammond M3, percussion, background vocals
Tim “TK” Kelly, steel guitar, background vocals
Eli Beaird, bass, background vocals
Eric Slick, drums, percussion, background vocals
Special guests:
Gena Johnson, background vocals
Abby Kelly, background vocals
Kacey Musgraves, background vocals

Ruston Kelly
Kelly’s debut for Rounder Records, Dying Star follows his acclaimed EP Halloween—a 2017 release produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit, Jenny Lewis) and praised by Rolling Stone (who described Kelly as a “scruffier-voiced Ryan Adams obsessed with both Merle and the Misfits”). Kelly co-produced Dying Star with Jarrad K (a songwriter/producer who’s previously worked with Kate Nash and Weezer), enlisting local musicians like singer/songwriter Natalie Hemby and Joy Williams of the Civil Wars to bring the album’s gracefully melodic, guitar-driven arrangements to life. And while Dying Star has its share of sonic flourishes—the elegant electronic effects, the all-female background vocals provided by singers like Kelly’s sister, Abby Sevigny, and his wife, singer/songwriter Kacey Musgraves—each track centers on Kelly’s soul-baring lyrics.

“When stars die, it’s one of the most galactically powerful things that can happen in the universe, it’s one of the most beautiful things you could ever witness, and it also gives life to new stars—so basically that death is essential. To me that all connects back to how I knew I needed to change, and I needed to see that change as a promising thing.” (Ruston Kelly)

Born in South Carolina, Kelly started playing guitar under the guidance of his dad, Tim “TK” Kelly, a pedal-steel guitarist who now performs in his band. “When I was a kid my dad would play steel guitar to help me to get to sleep, so that’s the first instrument I’ve got any recollection of,” he says. Since his father worked for a paper mill and frequently changed job locations, Kelly grew up moving nearly every two years, living everywhere from Alabama to Belgium. But it was during a stint on his own in Michigan—where he went to train with an Olympic coaching team in hopes of furthering his figure-skating career—that he made his first attempt at songwriting. “The family I was living with were contractually obligated to provide me with food, rides to school and the rink, money for miscellaneous things I needed—but they didn’t do any of that,” says Kelly, who was then 14. To soothe his homesickness, Kelly holed up in his room with the Jackson Browne album and guitar his dad had passed off to him before he’d left for Michigan. “I didn’t know this then, but when I was little my dad would sneak cigarettes by taking me out for a drive,” he says. “He’d just smoke and play an entire Jackson Browne album while we drove all around the neighborhood, so when I put on For Everyman in Michigan, I felt like I was home.”

Although Kelly first dabbled in songwriting in Michigan, it wasn’t until his family moved to Brussels his senior year of high school that he began to find his voice as an artist. “Moving to Belgium completely destroyed my sense of cultural placement,” he says. “It’s populated by so many different types of people, and it gave me this new understanding of all the possibilities there are in terms of what you can do with your life.” While in Belgium, Kelly also discovered the music of the Carter Family, which turned out to be another milestone in his growth as a songwriter. “Before then I didn’t know much about Johnny Cash, other than that he was a fucking thug,” he says. “I ended up going all the way back to the Carter Family, and becoming so mesmerized by the way Mother Maybelle played guitar. Being enchanted by that music ended up changing my life.”

At 17, Kelly left Belgium and took off for Nashville to live with his sister, but had no firm intentions of launching a music career. “I had no idea what I was going to do in Nashville, but I knew it was going to be different from how everyone else had done it,” he says. “Everything kind of started out of necessity—like, ‘I need to pay rent, how am I gonna do that? Well, I’m pretty good at writing songs, so I guess I should get a publishing deal.’” That deal arrived several years later, in 2013, when Kelly signed with BMG Nashville. Along with penning songs for artists like Tim McGraw and Josh Abbott Band, he continued working on his own material, releasing Halloween in April 2017.

This album contains no booklet.