[Cover photo credit to Tom Dellinger]

Multi-genre Bay Area band New Earth Farmers will be releasing the album The Sky from the Underground on October 4th, 2024. While the new album features 8 original songs, it also includes a cover of “Behind That Locked Door” by George Harrison, and “Have Love Will Travel” by Tom Petty. While their previous album The Good Ones Got Away (2022) was written during the pandemic and has much to do with “escaping” the outside world, The Sky from the Underground takes an opposite approach of delivering an overview of the issues in the world from a holistic perspective.

We’re very pleased to premier New Earth Farmers’ song, “War Inside Our Hearts” here on Wildfire Music + News today. It arrives on digital platforms on August 15th, 2024.

New Earth Farmers are known for tackling issues in the world head-on, but it’s a particular feature of The Sky from the Underground. Rather than picking up on one specific news headline, though, “War Inside Our Hearts” asks the big questions about the many news headlines, and, by cutting through the noise, does give some useful answers. It looks at the roots of modern conflicts, particularly wars and gun violence, and rather than reinforce the “other” dynamic where one party is held solely to blame, the song suggests that it’s a snowball effect built on our own willingness to listen to pernicious ideologies, alongside our own proneness to internal conflicts. Those internal conflicts then become projected onto the world around us with disastrous results, illustrated by the titles’ “War Inside Our Hearts”.

While the song has muscular underpinnings, including a march-like rhythm and a foundational bass-line, the electric guitar is the focal point, robust and mobile, moving from a rising tone to anthemic protests during its solos. A good portion of the positivity behind the song derives from the energy of the electric guitar on the song, reminding us that Rock music always has been great as protest music. By suggesting that blame lies with us all, while also reinforcing an energetic desire for change, New Earth Farmers make this a dual song that points to sources as well as to solutions. That last great solution, of course, being love.

The band says about “War Inside Our Hearts”:

This song makes an observation of the tribalism that is so rampant now. Lots of people are just picking a side and sticking to it, no matter who gets hurt, or killed. It’s a call for unity and love. A plea to turn off the divisive noise and come together. An updated “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding”. The feel and music was definitely inspired by The Clash.

New Earth Farmers consists of Paul Knowles, Nicole Storto, Nigel Twist (The Alarm), James DePrato (Chuck Prophet), and Kevin T. White (Shelby Lynn). The new album was, for the most part, co-Produced by Knowles and Peter Craft, and mixed and recorded by Craft at his studio, Boxer Lodge, in Napa, CA. There was additional recording at 1332 Recording by David Luke in Berkeley, CA. Mastering was done by Tone Def in Nashville, TN.

Regarding their sound on this album, bandleader Paul Knowles explains:

The song drives the treatment and genre of each track. In an era where lyrics often take a back seat to style, fashion, materialism, and hipness, we prioritize lyrics. Our songs ask questions, praise empathy and love, acknowledge inequity, inequality, and tribalism, and seek peace of mind in confusing times. We’ve expanded our influences. While there are Americana elements on the record, we also embraced British influences like The Clash, The Who, and The Beatles.

While The Sky from the Underground addresses some pretty heavy subjects including gun violence, and the exploitation of our environment, the band still seeks out optimism on the album.

Knowles comments:

There is optimism. Consider a seed. You can bury it underground, under a bit of earth, water it and it grows toward the sky. Likewise, there is optimism buried within the spirit of this batch of songs. We are trying to plant good seeds. Optimistic seeds.

The band has several Bay-Area gigs booked, including a record release party and are hoping to get to the UK for some shows with the other guys in the original Alarm (Dave Sharp and Eddie McDonald) and their current bands.