Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
String Machine’s new album, Hallelujah Hell Yeah, finds vocalist David Beck healing in real-time. Around the time he was writing a lot of the songs, the Pittsburgh songwriter was also going through a separation, and a last-minute solo trip to the Poconos to process ended up helping him confront a lot of things he hadn’t before. Something about the solitude made his writing more vulnerable, and the resulting track “Touring In January” quickly became one of the album’s most outwardly honest and triumphant moments.
“I’d write the music early in the morning, and I wouldn’t stop until I had a melody hummed out that was catchy enough for me to write words to while hiking these beautiful mountains in the wintertime,” Beck explains. “It was cathartic to see a view of 18 miles. These variables helped me put my guard down and be honest with myself.”
“You gotta hand it to me for making it this long,” David sings on the opening track on Hallelujah Hell Yeah. When the world around you feels as heavy as it has for Beck lately, it can seem easier to hide forever but instead, he’s turned his anxieties outward, and thankfully––he’s still hanging on.
A more deliberate and purposeful writing process––one that found Beck reconnecting with journaling as a means of doing inner problem-solving work––combined with the group’s undeniable chemistry makes for one hell of a maximalist indie rock masterpiece. Across nine sincere confessions of life’s many complexities, String Machine has created an album full of joy, vulnerability, and forgiveness; it’s the band’s representation of what it means to be grateful that one is alive, whether that carpe diem spirit is optimistic or nihilistic.
“Touring In January” is out everywhere today, and Hallelujah Hell Yeah will be out everywhere on February 25 from Know Hope Records. String Machine will also be touring alongside boundary-pushing contemporaries Caracara in March, and all tickets are on sale now.
3/5 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong
3/6 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Broadway
3/7 – Allston, MA @ O’Briens
3/8 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint
3/9 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
3/10 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk
3/11 – Kalamazoo, MI @ TBA
3/12 – Chicago, IL @ Chop Shop
