Now or Never: An Interview with Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
Husband and wife duo Angelika and Randy Roswell found
themselves in the lowest of places while living in Connecticut. They were
struggling to make ends meet and the music scene had changed drastically. Their
band, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns, was stagnate. It was now or never to find
a way out.
An opportunity in North Carolina presented itself, and after
the move the original music started flowing back into their lives. “I think it
was just the idea that we… I won’t say ignored, but for so long we didn’t
really focus on how much we wanted to truly reach people and touch people’s
lives,” Angelika said. “When we were going through a very dark time, both
myself and Randy together, we realized that we wanted to become everything that
other musicians had been for us for so long. Suddenly, with that realization –
with that need to reach people –it gave us that fuel, it gave us that spark
back we really desperately needed.”
Their latest EP, The
Way Out, is their exploration of rediscovering themselves as musicians. While
their past albums took on more philosophical and sociopolitical elements, this
time around it is completely personal. Surprisingly it wasn’t a difficult task;
in fact Randy swears it was easier to write lyrics that personally affected the
two of them. He ended up writing more songs than normal, adding a more enchanting
facet to their process.
They realized that by creating songs with different lyrical content,
that emotion would garner the attention of different people. “It’s hard to
connect with music when the lyrical content isn’t something you’re passionate
about,” Angelika said. “For me and Randy, we are passionate about [philosophical
topics] – that’s the basis of our relationship both professional and personal.
But nearly everybody you meet has gone through some kind of internal battle and
being able reach out to them and say they’re not alone is also a reassurance to
us that we aren’t in our dark times as well.”
Although it’s easy for Angelika and Randy to connect with
politically-charged music, they understand that they were missing out on the
chance to connect with more people. Now, that raw emotion they’ve channeled is
something they’ve embraced and have continuously been impressed by.
What are they hoping listeners will take away from listening
to The Way Out? “Hopefully learning
to get out of your own way,” Randy said. “I was [introduced to that phrase a
few years back] and I’ll never forget it. It’s very simple and maybe it’s
something that’s heard often but that’s what it’s about. I feel like we dig our
own holes. Life doesn’t happen to us.
When you have that view point – why me – I think you’re asking the wrong
questions. That’s one thing I hope people can find in this.”
The Way Out is available now.
0 comments