Frank Iero and the Future Violence aka The Future Violents have announced that their new Heaven is a Place, This is a Place EP will be released on January 15, 2021 via UNFD. Serving as a companion piece to 2019’s full-length, Barriers, the EP is split into two distinct movements.
They have also shared their cover of REM‘s song “Losing My Religion”. In 2016, Iero and his guitar-playing brother in law, Evan Nestor, were involved in a brutal motor vehicle accident in Australia – one they barely survived. During the process of recovery, “Losing My Religion” started making pivotal appearances in unusual places / weird circumstance and the mantra repeated itself as time went on. When Iero resumed touring, post accident in 2017, one of the members of the support band, Kayleigh Goldsworthy, struck a chord both literally and proverbially.
Iero notes: “From the first show I was completely impressed with her musicianship and by touring together I realized she was also a rad human being who I desperately wanted to write and play music with. In my mind she was already in my next band, I just had to write the music, name the band, find the other musicians, oh and of course ask her. But during that first tour together we got to talking about how she played the mandolin and how we shared a love for R.E.M., and more specifically ‘Losing my Religion’. So, on the last night of tour in San Francisco we found an empty room/hallway/stairwell type place and made an iPhone voice memo demo of the song. It felt like magic and that was the moment I was convinced this couldn’t be the only thing we did together”.
Listen to “Losing My Religion” below:
Elaborating on the origins of the EP, Iero comments: “The title of the EP actually comes from the night before we started recording ‘Barriers’ at Electrical Audio in Chicago. The band went out to eat and get drinks at a local Tiki bar called, Lost Lake. On the menu that night there was a drink called Heaven is a place/This is the place” shares Iero on the meaning behind the EP title. “I love when the universe gives you gifts like that. You just have to be in tune to your surroundings. The name struck me as clever and I started to think about how changing one word in that title meant something way more profound to me. Heaven is a place, if you believe in that sort of thing…It is the reward at the end of a long hard journey of fighting the good fight and living your life to whatever standards you hold dear. But it’s just a place. And so is this… This is a place, the earthly realm, miraculous on so many levels but also just a place. The difference is you and your perception”.
Heaven is a Place, This is a Place artwork & tracklist:
1. Violence
2. Sewer Wolf
3. Losing My Religion
4. Record Ender