EPK – Never Elected – Turbulent (2024)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
For fans of Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses, Soundgarden
Facebook.com/neverelectedband | Instagram.com/never_elected_band | Youtube.com/c/NeverElected
Neverelected.bandcamp.com | Spotify
“Washington D.C.’s Never Elected are bringing back some of the best elements of the ’90s, including the long hair. Fusing the socio-political consciousness of Rage Against the Machine, Living Colour’s furious bass-riffs, and the Foo Fighters’ driving guitars, the band is an in-your-face grunge-revival explosion.” – New Noise Magazine
“It’s really about time that you “Wake Up” and start paying attention to the world around you, including the hard rockers known as Never Elected. The band has just released a visually-stimulating music video to accompany their recent single, a revved-up, riff-driven sonic assault that has been the band’s most successful track since its November 2019 release. “Wake Up” is a preview of what’s to come on the group’s next record which they have been hard at work on this year and are on the verge of completing. If it wasn’t already evident by its title and socio-politically themed lyrics, the hard-hitting music video for “Wake Up” illustrates the fact that the band is out to convey a serious message.” – V13
“After releasing the thought-provoking and socio-politically themed video for their song “Wake Up” last year, Washington, DC’s Never Elected is back with a new video for their song “Where You Belong”. The video touches on yet another serious topic. This time dealing with the struggles of mental health, a topic that is taboo to discuss openly in many cultures.” – All About The Rock
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Album Title: Turbulent
Release Date: April 19, 2024
Label: Self-Release
Distribution: Distrokid
Track Listing:
1 – All Rise – 4:56
2 – Hate Breeds Hate – 4:20
3 – It’s Over – 4:06
4 – So Damn Easy – 5:04
5 – Time – 3:55
6 – Stab Me – 3:41
7 – Voice Inside – 5:09
8 – Tolerance Broken – 4:26
9 – All My Life – 2:15
10 – Death Complaint – 5:56
11 – One Of These Days – 4:00
Album Length: 47:52
Album Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Never Elected
• All songs written by: Never Elected
• Produced by: Never Elected, Co-Producer Farhad ‘Zink’ Hossain
Recorded by Farhad ‘Zink’ Hossain at Zinkferd Studio
• Mixed by: Matty Pellets
• Mastered by: Jason Stanley
• Album Artwork by: Sujit Kumar
Album and Live Band Line Up:
Sujit Kumar – Vocals
Altan Aydin- Guitars
Dr T – Bass
Wesley Meyer – Drums
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The artwork is in 3 layers where you see a child, an angry screaming man and then also what looks like an AI-generated self just looking back at the two, devoid of any feeling or emotion.Track By Track:1. ALL RISE – He stood and waited for years while his father was already dead and gone. All he wanted to hear is that his father is innocent.His father, James, was the personal bodyguard of Karan, who was the son of an influential politician. He was a man of integrity and honesty and would even put his life down to serve his duty. His job was to protect and serve Karan without judgement.Karan was a party animal and indulged in every vice possible. While James didn’t personally endorse any of Karans habits, he was there to do his duty. Karan often threw expansive parties for his elite friends where everything his friends indulged in was provided. Most of these parties were also visited by the local politicians and the top cops.On one such party, there was a change and there was a raid by the Narcotics department and Karan is arrested along with a few of his high profile friends. The police and courts had all the evidence needed to prosecute, but in a matter of days he is acquitted and James is taken in custody as being the prime supplier of contraband. He is further charged with murder as well, as one of the party goers succumbed to an overdose.He looks up to his employers for help but is always told that they are going to stand behind him as long as he just waits in jail for a while. While in jail, he mysteriously is found dead. The family is in shambles and while the employers conveniently give them a sum of money to “heal”, all they wanted to hear is the truth showing that James was an honorable man.He sits there looking at the lady of Justice with the band around her eyes, when he hears the words “ALL RISE”. While his father is dead and burnt a long time ago, he just hopes to hear the word “Innocent”, but all that he hears is GUILTY AS CHARGED.
2. HATE BREEDS HATE – An abusive and tumultuous relationship with a person who was so consumed by hatred, that all they felt was hate.3. ITS OVER – The abusive relationship where he is shunned and told to leave time and again but must return because she keeps calling him back saying she is dying. He finally decides that he is done and is going back home, but then realizes he has no one and no place called home.
He finally answers the call that he has been deliberately ignoring over the last few weeks. “Please come back. Please. I don’t know why I let this happen. I’m dying, please return. I’ll make all the changes and it will all be better, but for now please come back. Please return”
Ever since he left, he has been shuttling between places and he had just found a place to live that he could afford. He leaves that place, losing his deposit and advance rent to return.
In less than three days, she tells him it’s over again and this time he knows he’s done, even though he has nowhere to go.
4. SO DAMN EASY – They kept telling him, that he needs to voice out everything that he has bottled up inside. He is happy just smiling and spreading the happiness and love. He is now just an existentialist and doesn’t care for life and has a constant hope to end it all. He is never ever going to show it or let anyone know, while dealing with episodes of severe bouts of depression and suicidal ideation, where he sometimes screams out for help silently while telling people that he does not need saving.
We’re sitting at a bar way past closing time. The owners were friends and they let us sit in after everyone was gone and the doors were shut. We’re talking about old times and school days when Kurt asks “ Baba, you sure you ok?” I burst out laughing and ask him why he asks. He says that he feels I’ve been bottling up all my thoughts. Then says “You’ve got to let it all go man. You’ve got to let out and show everyone what you have inside”
5. TIME – Cocaine, a plethora of pills, and a bottomless pit of Rum sounded like the perfect place to meet his soulmate.
During a time of complete hopelessness and having lost all reason to keep living, he goes on a partying binge where he hopes to overdose and die. There is nothing to save for and nothing and no one to live for anyway. There is no one he trusts and no one he knows that believes in him. One night, he thinks he has finally found someone who believes in him and accepts him for the loser that he is. The night at the club was great and the days and nights that followed were even better. He thought he had found his soulmate, only for both to wake up to reality once the high had worn out.
6. STAB ME – story of a boy who was born to family where the dad was a highly respected person, and his mom was a ‘housewife’. He was a smart and confident kid who did well in art and sport, and did average academically, but it was never ‘good enough’. He was always put down by family because he didn’t match the HIGH STANDARDS set by the family. Always being put down and under pressure with no one to talk to, his only friend was his mom.
He finds his solace in drugs in his late teens and gets to a point where the parents and immediate neighbors realize. Instead of helping him in the right way, the dad wants to hush the problem and tells him to “Figure it out” and “get out of it”. He doesn’t want anyone to know that his son is a drug addict. He stops giving him money for college and tells him to “figure it out”.
Kid starts stealing from home, his neighbors, and his friends to support his habit. Neighbors and friends let mom know. Mom cannot tell this to dad and she needs to keep this hush, so secretly gives money to the kid to support his habit..
These are his thoughts and conversations with his mom who helped him dissolve his pain away to death.
7. Voice Inside – Sitting on the top of a terrace on a hill, looking down at the city contemplating on giving up or fighting on and working to bigger, better things ahead. Working on long forgotten dreams. Working on every little strain of positive thought that was either suppressed, burnt out or deliberately killed by myself.
As I sat there reminiscing about good times, I felt guilty. For no reason at all, a feeling of guilt is what went through me. I was not used to feeling or thinking of good times. It had been ages. My mind and body seemed to be rejecting these good feelings.
Maybe it was the hash that night or the fact that I was away and alone from social interaction for a bit that opened the doorway into my long-suppressed self.
8. TOLERANCE BROKEN – After years of soaking in insults and building walls internally, the volcano inside of him is no longer dormant and is ready to explode. He now sees things in a different way and is ready to destroy it all.
Told to pretend and wear a mask, smile and tolerate and soak in all the offence. Keep those feelings locked behind those walls you have learnt to build all your life.
Whether as a girl in a patriarchal world, or as a dark skinned / unpretty / ugly child, hiding behind layers of make up or an artist forced to hide within cubicles of data filled screens. Or an immigrant in an unwelcome new world.
9. ALL MY LIFE – All My Life begins with a Rhyme that the artist’s grandma sang to him regularly, mocking his ugly looks as a toddler. The genesis of this fiery and incisive track lies in that childhood rhyme, a haunting echo of a grandma’s jests at the artist’s toddler ugliness. This fiery and incisive track serves as an unfiltered outpouring of frustration directed at all those who have brought adversity into the artist’s life, spanning different periods and across various aspects. It is a brief rant on the hypocrisy and self-serving agendas exhibited by both, close and extended family. To amplify its potency, the band enlisted the vocal prowess of Reena Joy, reviving the persona of the Grandma with chilling authenticity. The band continues their collaboration with Rahul Mukerji of Proviscocity LLC, who the band had previously worked with,on their last two releases, “Where You Belong” and “Wake Up”, both of which garnered widespread acclaim on a global scale. Recorded by Zink Hossain at Zinkferd Studio in Virginia, the song then travelled across the Niagara to Montreal, Canada, where it was mixed by Matty Pellets and mastered by Jason Stanley at Studio 9. Recorded by Zink Hossain at Zinkferd Studio in Virginia, the song embarked on a transcontinental journey, traversing the Niagara to Montreal, Canada. Here, it underwent meticulous mixing by Matty Pellets and mastering by Jason Stanley at Studio 9, adding layers of sonic depth to its raw emotional resonance.
10. DEATH COMPLAINT – Battered and bruised, mentally, emotionally, and even physically, because he just got off a fist fight that he provoked for no reason known to him as he has always been scared of violence and would never want to cause harm to anyone in any form…. He walks back to the room, he now lives in, looking at whatever possessions he physically owns. High on a mix of sleeping pills, alcohol and a few other drugs, his brain works out a suicide plan with what he sees before him but he stops at the last minute..
11. ONE OF THESE DAYS – One of These Days is all about self-reflection, introspection, and the yearning for transformation. Broken mirrors and distorted reflections, give an insight into the artist’s identity and innermost thoughts. Torn within himself, he acknowledges the existence of an ‘Echo Chamber’, where his words and thoughts resonate without being fully comprehended by others.
Despite these hurdles the artist decides to confront his fears and uncertainties head-on. The line “I want to walk on the sun, Might get my feet burnt, Let’s do it” encapsulates his resolve to embrace risk and challenge themselves, even in the face of potential adversity.
In essence, “One of These Days” encapsulates the journey toward self-awareness and personal growth, urging listeners to confront their inner truths and pursue change, regardless of the uncertainties that may await them.
L-R – Dr. T – Bass, Wesley Meyer- Drums, Sujit Kumar- Vocals, Altan Aydin – Guitar
Photo Credit – Rahul Mukerji
Never Elected, one of Washington D.C.’s most captivating and electrifying acts, is set to rock the airwaves new album “Turbulent” coming out on April 19th. The album is also a finalist in this year’s 2024 WAMMIES (Washington, D.C.’s version of the Grammy’s) for Best Hard Rock / Metal Album along with their other nominations for Best Hard Rock / Metal Band, and Best Hard Rock / Metal Single (All My Life).
Known for their thought-provoking material centered around socio-political themes, Never Elected continues to leave an indelible mark on the music scene. The album “Turbulent” is a deep reflection of the tumultuous times experienced by the band’s vocalist. From rocking out to evoking tears, the audience’s reactions to the songs have been diverse and intense, showcasing the emotional depth of Never Elected’s music.
Formed by the dynamic duo, Sujit Kumar and Altan Aydin, who share a common love for all things grunge and rock ‘n’ roll, the band also features Dr. T on melodic bass riffs and Wesley Meyer, the driving force behind the drums. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the band persevered, recording and releasing two singles and music videos that kept their fans engaged during a period of uncertainty.
Recommended for fans of Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains, and Guns N’ Roses, Never Elected’s “Turbulent” is due out on April 19th, 2024, and is available for pre-order at https://neverelected.bandcamp.com.
Discography:
Turbulent – 2024
Down Too Long EP – 2017
Wake Up – Single – 2019
Where You Belong – Single – 2021
Shared Stage with: Shumaun, Iris Divine, XK Scenario, Shrewdness of Apes, Silent Island
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