Within Harms Reach have just debuted with a double release of singles. The Saint John-based alternative rock foursome has been in the works since late 2018, but they finally crawled out of hiding to deliver what they have been working on all this time.
“Colin Shonaman and I started this whole thing a little over a year ago,” says Within Harms Reach vocalist and guitarist Jon Shea. “At the time I wasn’t really doing much with music, and honestly didn’t have any plans to, but Colin’s sheer determination ended up inspiring me to work with him.
“After cycling through several people who weren’t the right fit for us, we eventually found Jordan Larsen, our drummer, and Quinn Adams, our bassist, who are both very dedicated and awesome. Ever since then, everything has just sort of fell into place.”
The first single, “Colours,” is a ’90s inspired song which delves into the demands society places on us, and the creativity-curtailing pressure that can cause us to lose our originality. The track points out another way the world has of making people feel less than their worth.
“’Colours’ is loosely based around the idea that the status quo has been crushing the creativity of the people,” says Shea. “We make a lot of references to ‘staying inside the lines’ and the world appearing to be ‘in black and white.’ We’re hoping this song gives a voice to all of the creative people in the world who feel their talents are wasted as the looming establishment slowly squeezes the colour out of us all. The message is spun in a positive way and ultimately comes down to the potential inside of every one of us!”
There is nothing more familiar to a lot of people then having dealt with a toxic relationship, which is what the second single “Supernova” touches on.
“’Supernova’ can be interpreted a few different ways, but at the centre of it is a metaphor for being stuck in a toxic relationship that you don’t actually want to get away from,” says Shea. “We use a lot of astronomical imagery, and the whole thing is kind of epic. ‘We’ll do whatever it takes, no matter what’s at stake, we’re burning like a supernova. There’s nowhere left to hide, not once our world collide, we’re burning like a supernova.’ That chorus has a lot of power behind it and we’re really trying to capture what toxic love can be like. It burns hot and fast and leaves a trail of devastation in its wake, but something about it just keeps you coming back, you know?”
Within Harms Reach will be trickling out one song a week to keep people in anticipation for the complete drop of their album, Overcome, which will be fully available within a few months.
“We decided to release our songs slowly to the public for a few different reasons. Mainly we want people to be surprised and have something new to look forward to every week with the album. The songs are all very different from each other and it may take people time to fully digest the theme that we’re going for. We’re really hoping this keeps people coming back so we can build a strong a strong relationship with our fans.”
Despite being a fairly recent addition to the east coast’s music scene, Within Harms Reach say they’ve got big plans we should be watching for in the future.
“We’ve got big plans for the future!” says Shea. “Right now our social media strategy and the album release are definitely our top priority, but moving forward we will definitely be making arrangements to get out and show the maritime scene what we can do. Hopefully, eventually, this whole thing takes us all around the world. We all see a lot of potential in this project and can’t wait to see what the future holds!”