Words: Ryan Getz / Photo: Errick Easterday

My first true house show experience wasn’t even in a true “house venue,” per se. An old buddy of mine I heard was having a house party. His pop punk band would close out the night. When I RSVPed to the event a dude by the name of Kevin Schlereth added me on facebook. The fact that there are people that perpetually travel the country content to play people’s living rooms and basements was paradigm altering for me. That, and I really enjoyed getting to know Kevin for the first time.

I’ve seen this guy perform in a variety of contexts in the years since. Festivals. Basements. Bars. Pizza pubs. The latter he had a full backing band actually, and I felt as if I was hearing the songs how they were meant to be heard for the first time (not that acoustic they were lacking – Kevin has that gift and passion).

Now, Kevin is set to release something new. That something is the eloquently titled This Broken Jawbone of our Lost Kingdoms.

Kevin has this to say about the song and record:

“TBJOOLK is a collection of songs reflecting, in many ways, on loneliness. I see it as our most relational record to date, a bit of a departure from our previous material which was maybe more theologically driven. That said, the record interacts very much with faith. TBJOOLK is about longing to be known and the struggle and hardship that can come out of the desire.

Hope Alive is a track that explores the human condition. We seem stuck in an endless cycle of envy and malcontent. Sometimes we start to see that as if from the outside, but come to realize that we are certainly not outside of it but stuck right in the middle of it. That is sort of where the song lives, in that realization. Yeah, I might see that I waste my time and energy chasing something that was never for me, but I’m going to just keep doing that.

The song title has a kind of interesting origin. The phrase “hope alive” was originally part of the first line of the song. I would sing, “hope is alive in everything until it gets choked out.” However, I don’t really believe that is true, so the line got axed. I assumed a new title would come eventually, but then it hit me that the phrase “hope alive” actually connects very well with the song as the lyrics reflect someone continuing on in hope, perhaps a misplaced hope, that the issues being sung about will change.”

Much like Kevin’s real life personality and stage presence, the song “Hope Alive” is a balance of subdued and in-your-face, and it is our privilege to premiere the song for you here at Tuned Up! Listen below. If you like what you hear, take part in an exclusive YouTube listening party on September 2nd, which will happen at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central.

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