Recommended If You Like: Aquilo, The 1975, The Killers

I took a chance on a feeling, but here I am feeling alone.

The Band CAMINO’s sophomore EP Heaven opens with a warm, enveloping guitar lick and pulsing beat. Immediately, the Memphis rock band throws us into the deep end of a reverie, waxing nostalgic as they find a new way to express love and devotion. Guitars churn out delicate melodies, dancing around Jeffery Jordan’s captivating vocals to create a powerfully engulfing soundscape. Heaven: It’s not a place – it’s an expression of youth, life, and love – of passionate fires that burn on end, and nights that seem to last a lifetime.

Keeping my mouth shut, cause I couldn’t tell you
Everything I saw, when I was still a boy in school.
I was still a boy in school.
Sometimes I feel like, I’ve gone insane.
Cause I can’t change my mind,
but I can’t stay the same about you.
I still feel the same about you.

Listen: Heaven [EP] – The Band CAMINO

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering The Band CAMINO’s highly-anticipated sophomore EP Heaven, out 6/2/2017 via Dollar Slice Records. The follow-up to 2016’s debut My Thoughts on You EP expands upon the vibing alternative rock sound that helped set the foursome apart from their peers just a year ago. Consisting of Jeffery Jordan (lead vocals/guitar) Spencer Stewart (guitar/vocals), Graham Rowell (bass) and Andrew Isbell (percussion), The Band CAMINO cite inspiration from acts like The 1975, Walk the Moon, and the Killers – setting quite the standard for themselves. Whereas their debut established that desired musical path, Heaven finds the band consciously seeking to distinguish themselves, exploring various aspects of their stadium-sized rock sound by toying with riffs, layered melodies, songcraft, instrumentation and more.

Heaven - The Band CAMINO — Heaven – The Band CAMINO

“We can confidently say that, Heaven, our second studio project, is an honest expression of what we have to say as a band,” expresses Jeffery Jordan. “The EP is only five songs, but we really took our time to explore our sonic landscape and experiment with different ideas. Although we take inspiration from so much different music, we really tried to use our broad spectrum of influences to make something that sounds like The Band CAMINO. We feel like these five songs showcase the realization of the band we’ve always wanted to become.”

If Heaven was the goal, then heaven has been achieved.

So what defines The Band CAMINO? Echoing guitars swoop us off the ground and send us soaring into sun-kissed daydreams. Fragile vocals awaken our deepest emotions as lyrics meld the past, present and future together: Memories from yesterday get caught up in hopes for tomorrow, jolting us awake and nakedly aware of our moment-to-moment existence.

Give me a second light,
I haven’t smiled since yesterday
If I need to I can pay,
but let me hold this ’til I feel okay
Since you burned me at the stake,
all of my feelings went away
There’s no feelings in my way
At least there’s no feelings in my way

– “My Thoughts on You”

The Band CAMINO’s music is vulnerably present and hyper-sensitive to our temporal existence. It clings to each second, squeezing out emotion like juice from a lemon. Rich harmonies drip from their songs, sweet and alive like an ethereal nectar. Time stands still on “Who Says We’re Through” as thin veils are thrown off a relationship at stake. Urgency cuts through “What I Want” in the form of driving guitars that drone off into the distance. On EP closer “Heaven,” music takes the form of a saving grace – the antidote to emotional disarray:

You keep running you mouth,
you keep running your mouth,
Trying to figure out
what you’re even talking about.
You keep dragging me down,
you keep dragging me down,
This music’s finally loud enough
to drown you out.

Keep me in heaven,
Cause I know.
You were cold.

It would seem that, in order to fully appreciate The Band CAMINO and their work, we must understand that music is far more than textured sound: Heaven is a vessel, an emotional vehicle channeling raw thoughts, intimate memories, and haunting dreams that spill out into the air in this massively cathartic outpouring of pure, unfiltered and limitless potential.

Heaven is about chasing your dreams ’til they’re running after you. Heaven is about finding light in the darkest of places and being a beacon of warmth for the cold. It’s real, it’s mortal, it’s now, and it’s forever.

Bravo, The Band CAMINO; bravo!