The Protester – video trilogy
When we first started working on our second album we wanted there to be a theme and the Arab Spring uprisings and the UK riots of 2011 started the formation of it, coupled with reading books like Z for Zachariah and On The Beach.
Time Magazines Person of the Year was released at the end of 2011 and the front cover had the words ‘Person of The Year’ and ‘The Protester’ emblazoned on it, the accompanying article’s opening paragraph was gripping –
History often emerges only in retrospect. Events become significant only when looked back on…Protests have now occured in countries whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history. Is there a global tipping point for this frustration? Everywhere it seems, people said they’d had enough. They dissented, they demanded; they did not dispair, even when the answers came back in a could of tear gas or a hail of bullets. They literally embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective colossal change.
This gave us the outline for the concept album, built around a protagonist, ‘The Protester’. Songs like Take Back The Streets, Army of One, Fight The Fever and The Protester followed.
To accompany the album release we planned a trilogy of music videos for the singles Always Tomorrow, Take Back The Streets and The Protester. This was to help explain/compliment the album’s concept of the rising up of the protest, a catastrophic world event taking place and the fallout from that event. Released in reverse order – part 3 of the trilogy, Always Tomorrow first, followed by Take Back The Streets and finally The Protester. All three are viewable on youtube and our videos page on our website.
The Protester – literary review!
Whilst the albums concept was very much shaped around the Arab Spring uprising and the protesting, the books in the photo below were also consumed in the making of this album….
If you like an apocalyptic novel definitely check out – Z for Zachariah (currently being turned into a film in Hollywood), Alas Babylon and The Death of Grass. Right I’m off to read a bit more of The Stand, I still havent got through it 1200 pages, it’s enormous!!!!
x
Another review for our forthcoming second album release – The Protester
Hey all,
Another review of the album – this time from Power Play magazine!!!!
The Protester – Sonic Shocks review
The new issue of Sonic Shocks had this awesome review in it!!!
Tin Soldiers – The Protester Classic Rock review
Today’s Classic Rock had a review of The Protester our forthcoming album release!!!
The Protester – album review
Our second album comes out at the end of April
Here’s the first album review we’ve seen –
Tin Soldiers. THE PROTESTER. Broken Star Media
“We wanted to write and play music that meant something,” singer-guitarist Rich Crossingham says of his creative motivations. “We wanted to write something that was a little bit different to another song about boy loves girl – something that was right for the time and that was passionate about a theme. I wouldn’t say we’re a political band. Then again ‘Ohio’ is a pretty political song, so maybe on some level we are.”
From the opening drum roll and military vibe followed by the ebb and flow of powerful guitar passages this album signals its intention to rock us out of our complacency. For me, it’s one of the most powerful and dark openings to any album I’ve heard in recent years, and is stunning. The title track, ‘The Protester’, explodes out of my speakers with Crossingham sounding as genuine and as passionate as ever. The melody is powerful, the instrumental performances powerful and the overall sonic vibe is one of a live performance rather than a highly over-polished studio recording. The sound is distinctive and if there’s any justice this should be played widely over the airwaves. Terrific! ‘Fight The Fever’ is another radio-friendly guitar rocker while ‘Take Back The Streets’ with its mixed pace and rhythmic underbelly could become the anthem of a lost generation – think Ukraine, think People Power!
‘Talk’ rumbles uncomfortably along at deathly pace with vocal harmonies to-die-for. It’s a reflective song with a wonderfully expressive vocal from Crossingham. ‘Alarms’ goes snare-drum-military with some distinctive guitar chords before the crashing instrumental choruses enter to create a memorable and stupendous close. This is a rock instrumental track par excellence… Then ‘Falling’ thunders in – an epic rock song with melody at its heart and passion in its soul. Track after track delivers rock thrills and I believe has fulfilled the band’s aims and objectives. It’s distinctive and deserves the support of radio, the media and fans of the genre. Favourite tracks? I love most of them but ‘Forced To Fight’ is a complex song which somehow manages to mix pace and vibe like few other songs I’ve heard. ‘Not Everything Is Lost’ is also a compelling listen, while ‘The Butterfly Effect’ is a slow-moving, emotional heartbreaker. Hell, in truth, there’s thirteen tracks here of top quality and encourage me to want to see the band performing them live. I reckon that’s job done.
4/5 (Shakenstir magazine)
Protester, protester!
So the album will be released in April and whilst the idea of The Protester was formed around the Arab Springs and the 2011-2012 events around the world, it’s not ever stopped being a topical issue from the protesters in Brazil in 2013 to this month and the Ukraine protests.
Take Back The Streets – Single release!
Hi all,
Our first single from our second album will be Take Back The Streets. You can see the video (part 2 in the Protester trilogy) via the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YbFJAQ4DTE
We’ve had some requests for the lyrics to this song so here they are!
Can you hear what I hear, a rising up on the streets
Im calling out – lend me your ears, this is no pyrrhic defeat
And so it begins, we’re not just fading away
And after all the rises and falls, burning twice as fast how long can you last.
If the sky falls in, let it all begin, a new day is dawning
Take back the streets tonight,
This is our time, this is our fight
And now we’ve got to stand up to make the change
Take back the streets tonight
This is all we have, this is our life,
And now we’ve got to stand up to make the change
Where once were ideas, now all that remains,
Are fragments and fears and people all doing the same,
And so it begins, we’re not just fading away
And after all the rises and falls, The rage inside it keeps us alive,
If the sky falls in, let it all begin, this is our fight if we still believe,
Take back the streets tonight,
This is our time, this is our fight
And now we’ve got to stand up to make the change
Take back the streets tonight
This is all we have, this is our life,
And now we’ve got to stand up to make the change
And someone else asked what is pyrrhic defeat – Pyrrhic defeat theory is the idea that those with the power to change a system, benefit from the way it currently works.
Tin Soldiers – Album 2 – The Protester
Hey guys,
We’re releasing our second album in 2014! It will be called the Protester and will feature the following tracks –
Miles Away
The Protester
Fight The Fever
Take Back The Streets
Talk
Alarms
Falling
Army Of One
Forced To Fight
Always Tomorrow
Sign Your Life Away
Not Everything Is Lost
The Butterfly Effect
We’ll have some teaser samples up soon 🙂 xx
The Protester – the ideas behind the album – part 1
So we’ve been asked a lot about the second album recently and what’s it’s going to be like, what it’s about etc. So I thought i’d write a bit about the ideas that helped create the songs.
We’d been starting to sketch out ideas for a while and were conscious that we didn’t want this album to be just a collection of songs like the first album. We wanted there to be a theme, something joining everything together as one body of work. We’d started piecing some songs together but hadn’t found the story…
It was early 2012 and I was reading some magazines when a copy of Time magazine caught my eye. The front cover had the words ‘Person of The Year’ and ‘The Protester’ emblazoned on it. I picked it up and read the article which went into great detail about the Arab spring uprising and the world wide level of protesting that had started in early 2011 and carried on (and are still carrying on now in places like Brazil as well as the Arab countries). The slogans ‘we are the 99%’ started appearing in 2011 and the Occupy events began in New York, California, London and even Tokyo. And protests were happening worldwide with Spain, Greece, Russia, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and other countries.
The opening of the article said – History often emerges only in retrospect. Events become significant only when looked back on…Protests have now occurred in countires whose populations total at least 3 billion people, and the word protest has appeared in newspapers and online exponentially more this past year than at any other time in history. Is there a global tipping point for this frustration? Everywhere it seems, people said they’d had enough. They dissented, they demanded; they did not dispair, even when the answers came back in a cloud of tear gas or a hail of bullets. They literally embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective colossal change.
This got me thinking. We are living in the midst of something massive. The music we create should reflect that story. The first ideas for The Protester were being sown…