We Speak in Colors and a conversation with Andrew Armstrong
© Allison Lancaster
© Allison Lancaster
It's been a while since I posted a music track here, and this post has a bit of a backstory.
A few months ago, I received an email from Andrew Armstrong based in Nashville, Tennesse saying he stumbled upon my site whilst he was researching music and alternative music scene in the UAE. He told me he was moving to Abu Dubai in the summer of 2015 to teach, and asked me a few questions about the music scene here. Andrew Armstrong is a singer and a musician and makes music under the moniker We Speak in Colors.
Since then, we've exchanged a few emails and this week, Andrew got in touch to tell me his first EP titled ASHTON will come out this week on Monday, 15th March (the first phase of a string of two song EPs that will come out over the next year).
I listened to the track Devoured (produced by Mike Marsh at Paper Mill Studio) and really like it, it's gentle, and despite it being described as "reflective melancholy-rock" by Andrew, I think it sounds hopeful. Here, listen for yourself.
How to get the EP:
Download the digital version from www.wespeakincolorsisme.bandcamp.com
Pre-order/buy the physical version from www.morethanmerecords.limitedrun.com (CD or cassette...yes cassette!)
This is the trailer for the EP, looking forward to seeing the complete video when it's out.
From the trailer, "This feels like being reborn. It's the start, it's like the first 27 years was the prologue. I feel like just throwing my hands up and let the current take me". I envy his youth, optimism and sense of adventure.
More about Andrew Armstrong/We Speak in Colors, in Andrew's own words,
We Speak in Colors is me. There is no black and white between my music and myself. It's all one big, blurry patchwork. I guess We Speak in Colors was born when my brother would play me his favorite records in his car on the way to school when i was 13. I was hooked, and by high school was obsessed with words and writing songs. It never felt like a decision or a burden, but rather an automatic reaction.
Over a decade later it's just finding its way to the surface. The switch turned and I realized it was time to pop my head out and explore this thing.
Somerset, PA was the setting for my formative years, but I always knew it was just a backdrop for my youth. When I turned 18, I escaped to Pittsburgh for 6 years and found everything in that city. Then, I tasted the ocean for a year while living in Nantucket. And now I've spent the last 3 years in Nashville.
In August I will be trekking across the Atlantic to set up my headquarters on the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi. I'm going to spend the next couple years knockin on the door of every country in the Middle east, Europe, and West Asia and getting on one of their stages.