The Town Heroes announced an upcoming album today with a brand spanking new video of the first single, ‘Only One.’ The band is not only showcase the relatively recent additions of guitarist Aaron Green and bassist Tori Cameron, but also a good cross-section of the band’s wardrobe.
Town Hero Mike Ryan explains his eclectic look as a composite, with inclusions as recent as last fall’s seasonal collection and homages dating back to the late ’70s that really bring a tastefully downplayed sense of suburban chic to the video.
“I have a rather astounding amount of crappy t-shirts from value village. There’s the ones I can fit into now, and the ones that I used to be able to fit into but hope to be able to again sooner than later,” says Ryan.
Ryan says the t-shirts seen in the video might account roughly 11% of his wardrobe. Despite his collection, Ryan is a savant when it comes to his fashion sense.
“I more or less just closed my eyes and grabbed a pile of shirts!”
“I’m not sure if I could name a fashion designer if I had a gun pointed to my head. Are Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren still in the game? I’ve heard Vera Wang mentioned before. I think she makes clothes too. I’ll go with her. She’s got a cool name and I bet her clothes are great!”
Creating some of the looks in the video provided a challenge for his band mates whose modelling skills couldn’t compete with the stature of long-limbed Ryan.
“We just wanted to make it interesting and have it flash to a bunch of different images of us. I’m three feet taller than everyone so they all had to stand on various piles of books to match up with my height,” explains Ryan.
Despite some of their retro looks, the song is a big step forward for The Town Heroes. The band is exploring a new sound with their full-line up. This is the band’s first recording to include Cameron and Green who joined the band in late 2016.
“As a duo, there were limitations. Our sound was crafted by three elements – drums, guitar and vocals. Having the bigger group takes those limitations off us. We can take the songs in any direction, have interplay between instruments. In the past, my right hand had to hold down every rhythmic component of what we were doing – 100% of the time. This gives a lot of freedom to both ease up and experiment at the same time.
Sound wise, I think our songs are still similar. The album as a whole may have a slightly more Alt-Pop vibe to it, but it’s still the same things we’ve done all along – just a lot more ‘parts’ happening simultaneously. In the past we’d have a song where I’d think of a different guitar part that would work great. But as a duo, it wouldn’t make sense to track it because we could never duplicate it live.”
The band explain that the song was chosen as their first single to release together because it most closely ties with what founds have come to expect from The Town Heroes. There is still Ryan’s soft falsetto paired with Bruce Gilles’ upfront percussion, but it has been fleshed out with the extra instrumentation. It’s opened things up a bit and made room for a Jimmy Swift-esque guitar solo in the case of ‘Only One’.
“We’ve got some tracks that veer a little bit from our past alt-rock sound…. not a huge amount by any means, but yeah, this one seems to transition between everything we’ve done and where we’re going,” says Ryan. “Lyrically this is a song about finding something you need in your life and not letting go of it. Sometimes it takes a while to recognize the things that make us better people, but when we do see them, we have to make sure to latch on. Musically we wanted the energy of the song to continually grow as the song progresses.”
‘Only One’ is the first single from upcoming album Everything (Will Be Fine When We Get to Where We Think We Are Going). The album is expected out in August, 2018. No word on when they’ll be releasing their fashion line.