the journey to liberation

North Carolina, US: Dubbed a “rock mystic” by the Indie press, Andrew Reed uncages As a Bird of the Air…, another concept album with a completely different SOUND and retro-vibe style than the successful 2018 album, If All the World Were Right, which yielded 2 Billboard Top 40 Indicator charting singles (If All the World Were Right #31, Cure My Mind #35). Rather than follow this success up with relentless touring, promotion and an album stamped out of the same mold, Reed “followed the wind” and put away his acoustic and dug into playing his old Strat and Les Paul Custom that he tortured for years on the road. He isolated himself from the music world and social media in his remote cabin for a year and created this unique sonic record by saturating analog tape running 3 times normal speed, capturing the performances at the point of inspiration. The result is an upbeat rock album of songs that sound like modern 80s at its best with high-energy rockers and passionate power ballads. Reed’s work is almost always introspective, but on this album, he sings about relationships and the common worries of people with lyric that express extreme angst and inner turmoil of growing up and trying understand the world. Reed plays all the instruments except for drums on this album, which were played by Wayne Redden. As an evolution of his isolation, he transformed into Andrew Reed & the Liberation… Reed sees “the Liberation” as a personal event of complete self-actualization and self-acceptance. Live, Reed “goes wild” with reckless disregard for anything but emotion. “To me, Rock wasn’t meant to be pretty...but desperate, risky and bombastic…where it could go off the rails at any moment…not over-rehearsed or efficient and safe…this record captures that.”

Reed is an artist unbridled and unafraid of going in a new direction and challenging paradigms. He does not feel bound to playing the same music, even after recent success. To him, that is like playing a continual recital. He explains, “I reached back on this album…Bach did music that was considered outdated in his time, yet it endures… I don’t equate myself to that stature at all, but I identify with writing music which may be out-of-step with the times or that may only ultimately please an audience of one…but the feel of these songs is undeniable.” In the song, Dropping Out of the Race, he expresses this disregard for trends, “I’m dropping out of the race, it’s my great escape… I’ve got no interest in fashion or fame, or people that time will change…”  Reed is a deviant flirting with enlightenment and our world needs deviants. This wildly creative deviant has produced a sonically unique record of catchy songs that radio will love, that are in tune with the times…and that will lift people.                                 Key Tracks: Too Little Too Late, Twisted World, Strangers, Dropping Out of the Race

Charts

New Music Weekly #8

DRT Top 50 AC #15

Billboard Top 40 Ind. #31