It\u2019s not easy sending pain into the world, but sometimes pain is all you have to give. It can be odd, then, when that pain finds a pulse with an audience – and they love you for it.<\/p>\n
Timothy Showalter, the man behind the band Strand of Oaks, wanted to create a record about youth, relationships and uncertainty – he wanted to write an album he would have liked as a 15-year-old. The musical missive ran the emotional gamut – mental, physical, spiritual – with few expectations anyone would listen, or care.<\/p>\n
But the result, called HEAL, proved lasting, cathartic and (to Showalter\u2019s surprise) popular.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think back to September of 2013 when I started writing these crazy songs that I wasn\u2019t sure if anyone was going to like and in a fake humble way I literally thought these are the weirdest songs ever, no one is going to want to listen to these,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then they did and I don\u2019t know what happened but it seemed to have struck some chord everywhere. Some records I\u2019ve put out and the Germans would love them, and that was it. But this one was I don\u2019t know. Maybe everyone was weird at 15 at one point.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a satisfying time for Showalter, and well-earned considering the series of calamities which befell him in the last decade. There was the marriage proposal to his high school sweetheart which was at first accepted only to be summarily declined. Not long after the break-up, a fire swept through his Pennsylvania house and destroyed all his possessions. Losing everything turned him to music, where he found solace through a musical airing of grievances. Yet his first three albums – Leave Ruin, Pope Killdragon and Dark Shores – found moderate success but didn\u2019t move him too far up the touring bill.<\/p>\n
But in 2013 something clicked, and he furiously started writing the songs which would become HEAL. An album of guitars, rock anthems and autobiographical confessions, it was nothing like he\u2019d done before – and it almost never saw the light of day. Driving home with his wife (he married in 2010) on Christmas Day, his Honda Fit slid on black ice and fishtailed into oncoming traffic, where it was hit by not one, but two semi-trailers.<\/p>\n
Somehow they both survived. A week later Showalter, with a row of broken ribs on his right side, mixed HEAL.<\/p>\n
It found critical and commercial success. Finally, some needed pleasure from so much pain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccess for me does not mean money, success for me means it\u2019s validating and it proves this thing I\u2019ve loved all my life, that has been my escape and sometimes my only escape, I\u2019m doing it well enough for people to like and come to shows,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cI never thought I would be able to do that. I don\u2019t give a s-t about if I can buy this or that, I\u2019ve got holes in my jeans right now and I made money this year, but it doesn\u2019t matter. I\u2019m going to be a mess either way, but it\u2019s just cool to know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Showalter wasn\u2019t sure how well he\u2019d endure playing songs from HEAL live, the process was so personal he feared a breakdown was coming. But he gathered up a band for a tour (the album has Showalter playing almost all the instruments) who brought a different vibe to the recorded songs. What started as fear became something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was freaking out when we were playing those first shows – I\u2019m a dramatic guy in the first place, but I felt I was going to break down,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the second we started playing them I was turning up the guitar and started fighting it with the guitar and singing. I said \u2018Wait, this is the opposite, I feel really good and empowered right now.\u2019 I think catharsis doesn\u2019t mean you have to watch a sad movie and leap into a bathtub, it can also mean flexing your muscles and drunkenly hugging everybody in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
On stage Showalter can be a raving madman, aching to give the crowd a lasting memory, while finding different arcs on songs not found on the original recordings (\u201cSome of the songs are almost unrecognizable at this point,\u201d Showalter said, \u201cbut there\u2019s still the essence of the song\u201d). Word has gotten around, and Strand of Oaks not only has international dates in Australia, Greece, Spain and Britain, but also national slots at Bonnaroo, Sasquatch and Lollapalooza.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny we\u2019re playing both Athens this year – the original Athens and the other Athens, like within a month of one another,\u201d Showalter said. \u201cI know all the gods and stuff are from the original Athens but my musical gods are coming from your place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The touring has opened up the writing faucet for Showalter, who is using the live show as inspiration for new material. He\u2019s found this time that the passion for new music isn\u2019t coming from pain, but from the joyful energy of being on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just had this discussion with a friend about how I\u2019m writing the new songs and for the first time I\u2019m writing songs with the feeling of the live show,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what I love to play live and how I want to translate it and it\u2019s affecting the songwriting process. I want to translate all of this epic energy in my head that is so hard to release anywhere else in my life. I want to make a record that releases that and not necessarily in a \u2018feel bad for me\u2019 heartbroken way – you can be cathartic and feel awesome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be able to take a break from heartbreak, but I don\u2019t need my bio to read like a Raymond Carver novel anymore. I\u2019d like it to read a little bit lighter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s not easy sending pain into the world, but sometimes pain is all you have to give. It can be odd, then, when that pain finds a pulse with an audience – and they love you for it. Timothy Showalter, the man behind the band Strand of Oaks, wanted to create a record about youth, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-music","tag-stand-of-oaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}