Away from the Glow

While Mike Meacher and Nick Barkley might take offense if you called them dense, it’s an apt description for their music.

The brains behind the Cambridge band Away From The Glow recently released the group’s self-titled debut album after spending countless hours in a cramped studio in their Park Avenue home.

And while some bands spend mere weeks or months working on an album, this one has been gestating for a year and half.

Each song on the 13-track disc has a multitude of layers, with as many as 30 guitar tracks alone.

The fact that the two friends built a studio in their house gave them the opportunity to play around more than if they had been paying for professional studio time.

“We wanted to create an organic acoustic sound with a more electronic production based approach,” Barkley said. “That gave us a lot of freedom.”

“Most of the time, instead of adding tracks, we actually put more than we needed into each song and had to strip it down.”

The result is a rich-sounding rock album that is designed for repeat lessons.

“The songs are built so that you can listen to them multiple times and still hear something new,” Barkley added.

The foundation of the band goes back many years. Barkley and Meacher worked together at Long and McQuade and despite their divergent musical backgrounds, realized they have similar goals.

Barkley is a classically trained pianist while Meacher is a vocalist and guitar player. The combination of those skills forms the basis of Away From the Glow’s sound.

After releasing their album last month, the buzz has been positive, Meacher said.

“We’ve been having a lot of success getting the word out through stuff like Facebook and Twitter. It’s awesome.”

The band will hold its CD release party on May 29 at Dooly’s, 600 Hespeler Rd.

For more on the band or to hear some tracks, visit www.awayfromtheglow.com . - Cambridge Times

Glow rocks - I won't get fooled again
May 21, 2009
Colin Hunter

For a second I feared I had been Rickrolled. I wondered if I had fallen victim to the viral online prank that, for the past year or so, has duped millions of unsuspecting web-surfers into listening to '80s pop crooner Rick Astley sing Never Gonna Give You Up.

It's a bait-and-switch gag: the innocent web-surfer clicks on a link expecting to find some relevant content, but is instead directed to Astley's schmaltzy warbling.

Rather than clicking on a link, I put a CD into my stereo -- the new album by Cambridge band Away From the Glow -- and pressed play.

For just one fleeting moment, as vocalist Mike Meacher sang the first few words on the album, I wondered if I had been Rickrolled.

Meacher's voice, particularly on the opening track, resembles Astley's in pitch, tone and delivery.

It's a crisp, versatile voice, but with a distinctive Astley-esque swagger.

Thankfully, my fear about being Rickrolled quickly subsided as Meacher and his bandmates proved themselves a powerful and talented rock outfit with pleasantly little in common with Astley.

While the album does contain glimmers of '80s synth-pop, it boasts complexity and depth of musicianship that make it a wholly contemporary and progressive recording.

Most of the songs are built upon the impressive piano work of Nick Barkley, supplemented by Meacher's soaring guitars and a solid rhythm section rounded out by drummer Marty Sinclair and bassist Dave Guenard.

Collectively, the guys create emotive and dynamic songs that evoke the grandiose melodies of acts like Big Wreck, Catherine Wheel and Peter Gabriel.

It's a gorgeously produced record, especially for a debut by a band that formed barely two years ago. No sounds get lost in the multi-layered mix, which is a testament both to the musicianship and some expertise at the mixing board.

Most of the songs border on the soft-rock end of the spectrum, mercifully not veering into muzak territory. Radio-friendly, but in a good way.

Occasionally, however, the boys get a little darker -- they move away from the glow, you could say -- and unleash songs that are somewhat more sinister (and, in my opinion, somewhat better) than the rest of the tracks.

Given the length of the album -- 13 tracks, clocking in at nearly an hour -- such out-of-left-field tangents are welcome changes from the plaintive piano-pop that dominates much of the disc.

If you like your pop music emotion-drenched and dramatic (a sort of U2-meets-Coldplay kind of vibe), don't miss Away From the Glow's CD release party on May 29 at Dooly's Pool Hall in Cambridge.

I promise it won't be a Rickroll.

chunter@therecord.com

therecord.blogs.com/withinearshot - The Record