Einar Askelsson and his band New Sunday just landed on my radar with “The Empty Street” and I’m already happy I found them. I also want to share more about Einar’s story, because there is something genuinely moving about the road that brought him to songwriting and I’ve included a copy of his inspiring story below the review.
Now, the song. New Sunday brings in a female vocalist who gives the track a touching and captivating delivery and I really loved how the lyrics and melodies come together. I liked how the arrangement keeps changing without making things messy. There is some nice guitar work here along with sound design that gives the track its unique character.
The chorus was easily one of my favorite parts. It stays with m and the songwriting shows how much care went into putting this together. You can hear that passion behind the music. It doesn’t come across as someone simply trying to make another song, there is a real personal reason behind the work.
The production also deserves credit. Everything sounds polished and professional, while the band still keeps its own personality in the track. After reading Einar’s story, I listened again, and honestly, the song carried a little more weight for me. This is more than one song to me. It is part of an artist’s long road, and that makes me want to support New Sunday even more. I’m always happy to see someone keep creating and I’ll be keeping an eye on what comes next.
“I started in music about 12 years ago for a co-incident. I was sick of CPTSD with terrible and painful symptoms. I fought it for 2 years and ended up as a wreck. Totally burnt out. In the beginning of my recovery proces I was telling my therapist about when I wake up with anxiety and it took until the afternoon before I was ready to face the day. The therapist said I needed to find something to fight against the anxiety when I wake up. I had a guitar and knew few chords. I don´t know why but I picked up the guitar after I woke up and started to jam. It was unbeleivable how the guitar worked to slowly calm me down. I did this every morning for a long time. (It took me about 5 years to get my health back again.). I´ve creative mind and had as a therapic too written a lot of poems. I did it to change my thoughts and emotions into words. I started soon to try to write songs with the poem as an inspiration. Well 12 years later I know how to play the guitar. And I have pretty good knowledge of the music theory. So songwriting became my thing. I didn´t and don´t have any ambiton to make it in a band and play on stage. That´s why I hire a vocalist and a producer for my songs.”
