A Thorn For Every HeartInterscope Records

Ask any musician who?s poured his heart out to audiences that think they?ve heard it all before: It can be easier to move mountains than to convert the jaded. But with their sophomore album, fittingly (and 100-percent intentionally) titled It?s Hard to Move You, that?s just the challenge Chino Hills, California, quintet A Thorn for Every Heart are willing to accept. And judging from the progress the band have made since their acclaimed first album, 2004?s Things Aren?t So Beautiful Now, it?s a challenge they?re fit to conquer. Recorded with producer Matt Squire (Panic! At the Disco), and featuring additional production (on ?No More You? and ?You?re The One?) from (+44)/ex-Blink-182 singer/bassist Mark Hoppus, It?s Hard To Move You finds ATFEH catapulting out of the post-hardcore underground that broke them into the wide-open world of soaring, atmospheric rock. Though the band?s trademarks?the dueling guitars, the lush piano and violin flourishes, the pitch-perfect vocal melodies offset by occasional screams?remain intact, they?ve been absorbed into a sound that?s infinitely richer, more complex and, well, beautiful than Beautiful Now displayed. ?We?re in a place with this record where we know exactly who we are,? says singer Kelvin Cruz, who co-founded ATFEH in 2003 and today rounds out the group with guitarist/singer Jeff Harber, bassist Justin Powell, guitarist Phil Nguyen and drummer Tyler Mahurin. ?We had only been a band for three months when we recorded our debut EP [2003?s Silence Is Golden]. Then we did Beautiful, and that was 10 songs, five of which had already been on the EP and gotten play all over the Internet. So, even though it was getting enough attention that that?s how people knew us, our first album wasn?t even the best representation of the band we were becoming.? Maybe not, but the groundwork was definitely there. Released in October of 2004, shortly after ATFEH signed to then-upstart Kickball Records, the Shawn Sullivan (Bleeding Through, Reel Big Fish)-produced Beautiful put both band and label on the map in a big way. The album garnered universal acclaim among taste-making websites like AbsolutePunk.net and Emotionalpunk.com, as well as with Alternative Press magazine, which in 2005 crowned ATFEH one of ?100 Bands You Need To Know? in its annual cover special. Factor in a tour regimen that included high-profile dates on the Warped Tour and Skate And Surf Festival, as well as stints with Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday (to name a few) and a first-ever headlining run in 2006, and ATFEH have seen a lifetime?s worth of experience in just a few short years?experience that shines through in the grown-up-all-right tone of It?s Hard To Move You. Rich with songs that cover the trials of life on the road, as well as with documents of the relationships that?ve come and gone between tour stops, It?s Hard to Move You finds ATFEH combining their road-hewn lyrical insight with music that literally sounds big enough to fill arenas. From the chiming guitars and rolling drums of the title track to the driving, retro-futuristic atmospheres and powerful sing-along chorus of ?Worthless,? ATFEH have created a fluid, expansive set of songs that are engaging from the first note onward. ?We self-filtered more aggressively than ever for this record?we?d stop dead in the middle of a song and scrap it if it wasn?t working,? Cruz remembers, laughing. ?As a result, everything?s stronger: The melodies are catchier; the playing is tighter; and the harmonies are powerful without us needing to scream to make them that way.? With plans to stay on the road indefinitely in support of their latest, ATFEH may keep finding themselves before just the sort of crowds whose difficult reactions inspired It?s Hard To Move You?s title. But as Cruz explains it, they?re ready to turn those crowds around for good. ?There?s so much passion missing from music today?everyone just wants to be bigger than everyone else, and the result is a lot of bands that sound the same,? he says. ?I can understand why people get jaded?I actually had the title of this album tattooed on my wrist since our first tour for our first record, and it?s something that?s always stuck with me, that it?s hard to move people. But those kids in the audience with their arms crossed? That?s our mission: to win them all over.?

Links

• www.myspace.com/athornforeveryheart