First Rate People – “Dark Age (Challenger remix)”
“The way you feel will make it real”
That is the mantra of Challenger and at the root of all John Ross’ writing.
Challenger is a three-piece from Brooklyn, New York.
John Ross writes and produces all the music for Challenger. Waylen Roche is a classically trained musician and plays multiple keyboards and electronics. John Frank provides the beat, as an accomplished drummer, he is the pulse of Challenger. John Ross’ previous bands include, Good Morning Engineer and The Influence. John Frank was in the band Holiday Shores. Some of the songs on The World is Too Much for Me found their beginnings while John Ross and film director Devyn Waitt were working on the score for the film “Not Waving But Drowning”. John Ross has been writing music for as long as he can remember. Before this record he had never spent more than twenty minutes writing a song – The World Is Too Much for Me took over two years to write. John was working as a staff composer at the time, and constantly in a studio. Many of the sounds on the record were inspired by the feeling of late nights looking out at the lights of lower Manhattan. The band considers themselves ‘epic pop’; as if Sigur Ros had written the Macarena. They have drawn comparisons to Peter Gabriel, Haircut 100, Tanlines, Small Black and Paul Simon.
These songs are brand new but they’ve lived a life within John. In many ways this album is a new direction but at its core, these songs are a continuation of the song he’s been writing since he was 15.
Challenger plans to release their next full-length album, Back to Bellevue in the fall. They are looking forward to heading out on the road for a longer stretch.
Download: Challenger – “Back To Bellevue”