Hey guys, I promised some new music this week.. so here it is!   These aren’t the actual “full” versions, but just acoustic versions of songs from the record.   As I said before I’m going to release all 11 full tracks, with their acoustic versions in July.   I used to worry about sharing “too” much music.. and as I result I have a ton of songs that no one ever hears but me.   So part of this new season I want to share as much of my music as possible.   I have albums ready to be recorded after this one is done and out!  

The full band versions of these songs are being mixed right now and the first of those will be released next month and the entire project should be out July 17th.   I will keep you updated of course.  These are two songs that were written almost two years ago.  My Biggest Enemy is one of the most honest songs Ive written lyrically.  Inspired by the life of my grandfather, but crosses lines into my life and I’m pretty sure most of our lives if we are honest with ourselves.   Get Me Out Of Here is a song that deals with sometimes thinking we know everything about everything and just because one thing turned out one way, at one time, means it’s going to turn out that way every-time.  It’s not true!   So that’s what this song is reminding myself and hopefully you all as well.

Now the challenge.. All of you reading this have the power to share these songs like never before.   So if they move or encourage you in anyway, please do me a favor and make sure you pass them on to at least a few friends with open ears.   It’s crazy how quick we could spread this in this time and age.   At the same time I’m completely happy with only the ones reading this hearing them.   Only if it moves you to do it, but it would be much appreciated to have new ears hear what I love to do.   Enjoy friends!

Wanted to share some of this new music as it’s being finished up. Here’s a song in the mixing process (without vocals in the mix) called “Look Alive”. It’s one of the more upbeat songs on the record.  This one was demoed as a Status song but ended up being more in the vein of this new project.  It’s one of our favorites to play live.   I’m going to try to do more of these videos in the weeks to come, thanks as always for your support and friendships

Hello Everyone,

I’ve enjoyed being back in touch with so many of you and am very excited about this new chapter of creating and sharing in my life.   I met with Danny and Mike last weekend to work out some details on this “solo” record that we are finishing mixes on right now!   If you haven’t heard me speak of it before..  It’s a project that we started last spring, that Dan and Mike played on and are a part of when we play these songs live.   They aren’t Status songs, I have over 1,000 songs, prolly times 3.. but I need an outlet to create and release freely so I can start sharing all of these.   So that’s what THIS is.   So with that being said, we are planning on self-releasing this record on July 17th and the title of it is Winter in Granada.

The title comes from my grandfathers middle name and for the time he spent in the latter part of his life in Granada, Nicaragua.  I didn’t really get a chance to know him well, but his life has definitely inspired more than a few thoughts in my heart and I’m sure many others.  I wrote a song about some of those called “My Biggest Enemy”.  As part of this release I think we’re going to release 22 tracks.. yep.   11 of them will be a full band arrangement and 11 will be acoustic versions of the same songs.   I’ll be posting a few of the acoustic ones next week, so be on the look out and please help me pass them around when they’re out!  

For now, I wanted to share the lyrics for one of the songs that Ill post next week, which is the song I mentioned previously, “My Biggest Enemy”.  Enjoy and don’t be shy, if you enjoy it, please share with others.

(Verse 1 & 2)

I never asked for help, though I appreciate the offer.

My pride stood high, till I realized, I got too deep to cut these ties.

Selfish and I know.  Maybe I did the whole thing wrong,

tell me how did I get myself in this one?

Cause I’m the kind of person, that can operate alone.

Sometimes the weight was greater, than I could move on my own.

Come on and lend a helping hand, and prove me wrong once again,

but oh this took all that I am.

(Chorus)

I never wanted this but I asked for it, I found my happiness but at what expense

and even in the end I wouldn’t change a thing, my biggest enemy was my closest friend.

If I could say one thing I know what it’d be, take what you’ve got and live comfortably.

and learn from your mistakes, life is more than a risk you’re dying to take.

Verse 3

Regardless of what you’re thinking, this is the life I chose and love.

Money, power, and security, are just some words someone made up.

Come on and lend a helping hand, let’s start a fire once again,

burning brighter than before to the end.

Bridge

Summer became, a picture frame, a map in time where we could stay

little pieces of my heart, scattered, here and there, and far.

My conscience could never keep this pace, so my guilty thoughts would stay away,

till eventually I cracked to the sleepless nights I had.

Verse 4

Perspective I can trust, is when I learn to see the lining,

even the darkest and deceiving, clouds they’ll see the sun.

Selfless I’ve become, maybe I didn’t do all wrong,

tell me how did I make it out of this one.

Finished mixes for the acoustic versions of the record! Hope to have some up to share in the next week or so. Then record release will be announced.. Really gonna need some huge help getting the word out. Thankful for you guys that care to read this, really, really am!

I got to run 7 miles this morning.   It’s amazing how much has changed in a year.  Life is so precious and I couldn’t be more thankful and excited for what the future holds.  I’ve been working everyday for the past two weeks on new music.   That’s something I’ve not done in quite a while.   No more waiting, no more excuses, I have been given a gift and it’s not for me to hold exclusively.   Good things are coming.   I don’t know when exactly, but I’ll be sharing something soon.   Last stages before final mixes.   Excited and blessed.

This band is great.   Glad I recently found them.. Anyone heard of them?  Check out this video if you get a chance.  Hope you’re all well:)

thestatus:

The long and winding road

 We know an update is far overdue..  We’ve been fairly silent for a little more than a year.  Went from touring almost year round from the time STIP was released, to only one tour this whole year.  The truth of it is we just got to the point where we had to let go of all things that had to do with the band to be able to decide what to do.  Here’s what we decided..  We still love music and each other so we’re going to continue to play, make, and record music together.  

 

I’m sure you’ve noticed that the lifespan of bands aren’t as long as they used to be.  Why?  Lots of reasons, and it’s those same reasons that have discouraged our hearts away from the things we were so passionate about since we started playing together back in 2004.  Yeah, 2004.  You may have not even known that about us, but Andy and I started writing songs in Andy’s freshmen year of high school.  We played shows, played bars, did everything we knew how to do to grow our band.  We would sit on his front porch for hours and just write songs, dreaming about going on tour with our favorite bands.  Without making this any longer than it probably is already going to be,  a lot of GREAT things happened since those days on the front porch.  We played hundreds of shows, toured across the country multiple times, with countless memories (good and bad) released a record and EP on one of our favorite labels, saw our record in record stores across the country, toured with some amazing bands, and probably the best part, met so many amazing people.   The tricky part of it is, all of that takes an incredible amount of hard work.  That was never the problem, we loved what we did so it was easy to do the “work” part of it.  Somewhere along the line though, when we probably needed a bigger hand involved, we just never got it.  Maybe that’s fate, maybe that’s the ever-changing age of digital revelation and it’s effects on music and ART.  We accept it for what it is and with a deep breath, and with some time away, we now can continue doing what we love.

 

At the end of the day, after seven years of working towards a goal, (many that we did reach), we just needed a break.  In a lot of cases we just didn’t fit in with a lot of the bands we ended up playing with.  We’re not young “scenesters” anymore, not that we ever were?  We love music, we never care or cared who we played with or saw at a show, but a lot of times we felt the “group” of bands and music we got organized into wasn’t really where we belonged, because sadly sometimes it seemed less about he music, and that took a toll on all of our hearts I believe.  I think that’s one the biggest thing we wanted to break free from.  

 

So a year removed from our last real activity on the road, we spent a lot of time writing and playing more of my solo material with Dan and Mike, and playing shows in the Atlanta area.  This was another breathe of fresh air we needed and    so we started recording a record for this material earlier this spring and it should be finished soon and released early next year.  I guess it is a solo project, but it’s the same people playing and are just as important, just a different sound under my own name.   So don’t let it confuse you! J  We want to create and put out as much music as possible.    That being said, I’ll finally get to the news of new Status material.  We have a huge batch of songs that was intended for our follow up record to STIP.    We’re finally at a point where we can logistically all four (Yes Andy!!) get back together and start rehearsing with the intention of recording these songs.   We also are planning to do most of the recording and releasing ourselves.   We’ll get help here and there, but one of the biggest setbacks is always waiting on other people or things to develop, and in turn we make empty promises.. We don’t want this to be that.. We want this to happen and hope a handful of you do as well.

 

I realize this is long and may feel like the same written description from just another band fallen on hard times.  Thank you for reading it, we felt like we wanted to be as honest and transparent as possible.   We always wanted to be that type of band, maybe we were, maybe we weren’t.  2012 is definitely the start of a new season for the Status.  We have no idea what it will look like or exactly how busy we will be.. but we will release new music.  We have nothing but thanks and excitement for the future.   We’ll keep you updated and let you know when we start rehearsing and preparing to record, until then, we love you and appreciate your support so here’s two of the demos we recorded last year for this record.   These are entirely rough and we have since wrote dozens of songs.. so don’t judge the future too much based solely on these.. There are TWO demos up on our soundcloud page.. (http://soundcloud.com/thestatus/secondchancewvoxruff10).   So please enjoy and help pass them around social arenas.  

 

With nothing but love,

 

Ben, Mike, Andy, and Dan

Working on an overdue update from The Status..  We’ve all had a crazy year, and it went by way too fast.  Feeling really blessed to still have something so sweet that was invested in so heavily.  Sometimes a little time off or away can bring closure or bring you back to the place where you started.  Can’t wait to send more your way.   For now, hope your holidays are going well!   I have some holiday music on my soundcloud  (soundcloud.com/bengrant) and am hoping to record something to share this week.. So I’ll check back soon, promise:)

Hey everyone.. I’m starting to mix the final songs for the new (first) record so I figured I should probably start sharing some of the material that will be on the record!   This is one of the songs that will be on the finished product, but an earlier version/demo of the song.  Hope you’ll check it out and start helping me get the word out about my new solo endeavors.  As always I really appreciate your kind hearts, makes sharing all the more worth it.   More to come soon and hoping the record will be out sometime this fall!  

For more updates check out my new facebook music page.. facebook.com/bengrantmusic or twitter.com/bengrant thank you!

Lake Wier on Flickr.

This was taken with my old cannon film camera earlier this spring at a park in Lake Weir, Florida. It was already so warm at that time of year.. Surprise, surprise, it’s Florida, no offense! In the very far background of the photo close to center, you can see it’s a little out of focus, but it’s a wild turkey!  We saw several that day at the park but this was the closest picture we got. That’s all for now, hope you all are well!