Premiere: Young Rising Sons Revel in Past Highs on Nostalgic Anthem "Good Days"

Young Rising Sons’ radiant and nostalgic new anthem “Good Days” puts past highs on a pedestal, reveling in the sweet embrace of a warm memory and simpler times.

Stream: “Good Days” – Young Rising Songs

I wanna go back to the days before things got complicated  and the simple life just slipped away…

Growing older means that life inherently gets more complex, nuanced, complicated: You hope to experience more highs as the years go on, but with any and all highs come the inevitable lows. As you go from your twenties into your thirties and then your forties, Springsteen’s words about our glory days – “well, they’ll pass you by” – ring ever more true. We can only hope to keep making more glory days with each successive year, and even that can’t stop us from looking back with a wistful smile. Young Rising Sons’ nostalgic new single “Good Days” encapsulates these sentiments in a charismatic, radiant anthem that celebrates our histories, putting past highs on a pedestal and reveling in the sweet embrace of a warm memory.

It’s a rush of nostalgia wrapped in effervescent, bright garb – a charming, churning sonic texture that masks the sadness of living in the past.

Good Days - Young Rising Sons — Good Days – Young Rising Sons

I’m chasing, retracing 16 with you
We made it 18 with matching tattoos
Talking ‘bout growing up (ooh) 
But time hits like a train (ooh) 
And even though we were broke 
I’d throw all of my money away
Just to go back to the
 
Good days 
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do 
I’ve been watching years fade 
And all along I never knew that we were in the
Good days  Sha la la la la la

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Good Days,” Young Rising Songs’ first single of the fall and their latest release following April’s seven-track album SWIRL and this July’s standalone single, “Carousel.” Together on and off for over ten years now, the Red Bank, New Jersey-based indie pop band consisting of Andy Tongren (lead singer/guitar), Julian Dimagiba (bass), Max Iantorno (guitar) and Steve Patrick (drums) has always been a source of inspiring energy and unrelenting passion. There’s something about the charge in Tongren’s dynamic vocals, the sweeping pulse of Iantorno’s riffs and Dimagiba’s bass work, and the sheer force of Patrick’s drumming that not only evokes a youthful electricity, but also a deeper wonder about the world at large.

The band’s newest offering finds them yearning for a simpler time that lacked the “real world” burdens of adulthood: The throes of life, if you will. It’s a rose-coloured tour through the past that highlights a series of coming-of-age memories and flashpoints that defined Tongren and co. as they journeyed from their teens into their twenties.

“‘Good Days’ is about finding the perspective in growing up and how we cope with seeing change within the world around us, our friends and family, and ourselves,” Tongren tells Atwood Magazine. “Our goal with ‘Good Days’ was to make it feel like a record that could have been plucked out of any decade; the kind of song your parents would put on during a road trip when you were a kid. And, more than anything, it’s about learning to appreciate those fleeting moments of life while we are in them.”

The song’s music video holds a deeply personal weight for Tongren, who made it by splicing together footage from his own home videos.

“My family has hours and hours of old home videos, which we converted from 8mm to VHS and VHS to mp4,” he explains. “I always knew I wanted to use them for something, and when the ‘Good Days’ concept began to come to life I immediately started editing the video. September 16 would have been my grandparents’ 73rd anniversary. My grandfather (who ‘Simple Life’ is about, and whose dog tags I still wear to this day) was such a huge influence in my life, and it’s pretty special that I get to go relive some moments with him in one of our music videos. My hope is that ‘Good Days’ reminds us all to soak in those fleeting moments a bit more.”

My hope is that ‘Good Days’ reminds us all to soak in those fleeting moments a bit more.

Last call shutting down the bar 
Screaming closing time with you 
Not sure what we’re living for,
I guess here to 22
Talking ‘bout growing up (ooh) 
But time hits like a wave (ooh) 
And even though we were broke 
I’d throw all of my money away
Just to go back to the
 
Good days 
There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do 
I’ve been watching years fade 
And all along I never knew that we were in the
Good days , Sha la la la la la 
Good days , Sha la la la la la

Young Rising Sons appear to have the right attitude: Soak up all the good that’s come into your life, and keep it going for as long as you can. “Good Days” may inherently be bittersweet, but it’s also beautiful: An impassioned celebration of a life’s worth of happiness and meaningful moments. Stream Young Rising Sons’ new single exclusively on Atwood Magazine.

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