Rhythmic. Authentic. Melodic. Soulful. Energetic. These are all words that best describe Cincinnati known band Rockstead and their newest album Fall Down Get Up Repeat. Listening on repeat song by song, the album made me smile, while I nodded my head continuously.
“This album has so much diversity,” said Jake Burns, front man/vocalist/guitarist for the group. “We've got more rootsy sounding songs, we've got songs with metal breakdowns, we've got punk rock songs and we've got acoustic songs. There really is something for everyone on this album.”
Fall Down Get Up Repeat’s theme of the album is mostly about hope and determination, brought on initially during the pandemic. It was tracked at Black Moon Studios in Pataskala, OH and mixed at Signal Flow Studios in Cleveland, OH.
Listening to the album very closely, I noticed every song on the album had its own unique story to tell, keeping the listener guessing at what comes next at every moment. I could also not pick a particular song that I liked the best, as they all rated at a high level on my scale.
“For me personally, my favorite song is "Remember Me." This song came to me while I was reading a "self help" book. It had you fill out these short questionnaires after every chapter and one of them wanted you to list your biggest mentor who had helped you get to your current professional point in life. I thought long and hard about it and realized I never had one. I didn't grow up around any people who were following this pursuit of being a professional original musician. I had to carve this path by myself. I touch on a lot of that in the song and top it off with "I hope that they remember me" which is my way of saying, I hope I can be this person for someone else, since I never had one,” said Burns.
As with any musical project, the aspects of the recording process can be difficult. This was certainly the case for Rockstead, as each member lived so far apart from one another. Lack of money and travel difficulties made the entire recoding process take longer than what the group initially wanted it to.
“The whole process took about a year and a half. We were super tight on cash trying to get this done, so we'd go out and run a week's worth of shows to make money, then immediately head to the studio, and spend it all on tracking,” said Burns. “Each song really has its own message within it. Most of these songs were written in the thick of COVID, when a lot of crazy things were happening, and no one was sure what the outcome would be.”
As for what is next for Rockstead, only time will tell.
“We dropped a few different music videos for the album. Everyone should go check them out on our YouTube Channel! Currently however, we are already writing new music and thinking about releasing some new singles before the end of the year. The grind never stops,” said Burns.
