"How much must I live through, just to get away?" sings Wil Martin on Earshot's bullet-proof single, "Get Away."
That question beats at the heart of the band's aptly titled debut album, Letting Go. Throughout the disc's eleven tracks, Wil, drummer Dieter Hartmann and guitarists Mike Callahan and Scott Kohler blast through a life's worth of (very) moving targets.
"A lot of the songs are about relationships," admits the singer, "or about having a bad day, where nothing seems to go right, or where you just dwell on the negative. But the album as a whole is about getting past all that." Connecting with listeners at such a powerful emotional level was Earshot's goal when the four friends first got together in a Los Angeles rehearsal space. Prior to that, they had settled on the West Coast from such far-flung places as Austria, France, Kansas and Ohio, all with the dream of putting together that timeless band, according to Wil.
"We all had a common vision," agrees Mike. "We wanted to play heavy rock music, but take it a step further - make it more melodic and stylistically diverse, instead of just pounding out heavy songs for the sake of it. We wanted there to be substance to what we played."
The band realizes that vision on Letting Go, an album that covers some serious ground, from the charging "Headstrong," to the plaintive "Ordinary Girl," to the slow-burning "Not Afraid." But no matter what direction the songs take, they're all connected by Earshot's strong collective identity, and Will's dynamic voice and reflective lyrics.
"How much must I live through, just to get away?"
