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Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say is the debut album by the American rock artist No Angels in Providence, released on July 20, 2020 through J.J. Starlight Music. The album was recorded and mixed at Starlight Studios in North Smithfield, Rhode Island. The tracks “Killers”, “Generation Alone”, and “Will It Hurt“ were released as the albums primary singles. The single “Killers” was released on compact disc on June 05, 2020. The compact disc distributed for “Killers” includes a B-side track titled “Lasting Goodbye”. The version of “Lasting Goodbye” released on compact disc is an older version which begins with a traditional acoustic guitar introduction and a different studio mix from the version on the Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say LP. A ten minute studio cut of the song “A Girl Named Lee” was also released as a single before finishing the final cut for the Rock & Roll No Matter What They Sayalbum. The track is the longest and became a point of frustration at one point to put on the album. Most of the piano performances on the track by singer/songwriter Joshua Aaron Runk were completed a year before writing the 2019 demo album Story of Hopefully which included the first recordings for “A Girl Named Lee”. The song was originally titled “Story 'Bout A Girl”. The studio mixes for the piano introduction were much different than the songs secondary piano tracks during album re-writes in late December 2019. “A Girl Named Lee” is the only track on the album that has an edit version. Three versions of “A Girl Named Lee” were eventually released. The official single released, with a run time of 10 minutes 6 seconds, is the original version. The edit titled “Pills” has a run time of 6 minutes and 20 seconds. The three part album version with the beginning piano introduction, “Story 'Bout A Girl”, and the outgoing guitar movement is 12 minutes 31 seconds. Joshua Aaron Runk wrote this song about a friend who committed suicide from addiction. “In the end this track pushed the writing process for No Angels in Providence so much that I wanted to shine a light on it with those three versions.” - Joshua Aaron Runk

Recording


 * Songwriter Joshua Aaron Runk on the writing of “Something Beautiful”: “I wanted to get right towards the heart of this song that I began writing in November 2019. The lyrics were written after I recorded two different demos for this song. From there it took a month to finish the other instrumentation and mix. The tempo for the main guitar chord progression had to be tight. I am a lazy guitar player, so it took a while to layer the guitar tracks. When it came down to choosing which version would be released on the Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say album, the heart behind the lyrical progressions lead towards a great recording experience and keeping the version that is on the album. The other version was an upbeat guitar driven song that I will keep for live performances.”

After “Wish” and “A Girl Named Lee” were released as singles, songwriter Joshua Aaron Runk performed a song during a livestream event on June 14, 2020 titled “Let Me Live”. This song felt right for the final cut of the Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say album, so it was fast-tracked into 2 nights worth of re-writes and editing, to close the recording sessions, at Starlight Studios, for the album. The song was revised and also used elements from a track titled “Lonely Stars” written for the Story of Hopefully demo. The track was recorded after studio hours, so the main guitar tracks and background vocals were eventually completed in a sealed bathroom giving the song “Lonely Stars Burn Bright” its guitar sound.

Track listing

All tracks were written and produced by Joshua Aaron Runk.
 * E for explicit content

No. Title. Lyrics                            Music                   Length

1. “Generation Alone” E                                                                                                  6:21 2. “Killers” E                                                                                                                     7:14 3. “Will It Hurt”                                                                                                                 8:21 4. “Just”                                                                                                                           5:57 5. “Pills”                                                                                                                           6:19 6. “Ask the Devil”                                                                                                            4:11 7. “Learning Rock & Roll (The Day You Died)”                                                             8:31 8. “Last Day”                                                                                                                     9:00 9. “Wish” E                                                                                                                       4:41 10. “Hero so Lonely”                                                                                                        9:16 11. “A Girl Named Lee”                                                                                                   12:31 12. “When Days Won’t Shine”                                                                                         9:23 13. “Lonely Stars Burn Bright“ E                                                                                    5:07 14. “Lasting Goodbye”                                                                                                    5:03 15. “Something Beautiful” E                                                                                           6:57 Total length: 1hr 49min

Background

Rock & Roll No Matter What You Say was released in digital format and streaming service listening. Recording sessions began in May 2019 with a demo album titled Story of Hopefully. Joshua Aaron Runk returned to Starlight Studios on December 27, 2019 to begin writing (ten) new songs to complete the 15 track album. The song “Killers” was submitted to J.J. Starlight Music on March 08, 2020 to be released as the albums first single. The only songs that remained on Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say from the original demo album were “Ask the Devil”; “Wish”; “Last Day”; “Learning Rock & Roll (The Day You Died)”; “Lasting Goodbye”.

Joshua Aaron Runk wanted to create a Rock record that simply embraced sounds of intimacy and aggression with raw vocals, acoustic guitar, and piano. Those unusual moments and unfiltered sounds within the great records of Rock, Rap, and legendary R&B artists/musicians hold magic remembered and cathartic moments listeners carry throughout their life. The primary goal was to hand the melody back and forth from instrument and vocals so the lyrics could stand out front. The live performances in 2019 brought the album closer to a better beginning. The Rock & Roll No Matter What They Sayalbum touched upon many emotional subjects such as post traumatic stress and carried by Veterans in the song “Killers”. Domestic violence and abusive relationships in the songs “Last Day” and “Lonely Stars Burn Bright”. No Angels in Providence composer Joshua Aaron Runk wrote the song “Learning Rock & Roll (The Day You Died)” about the tragic loss of his Best Friend. The closing track “Something Beautiful” was difficult to finish emotionally. The song speaks about an sexually abused teen and her emotional fears as she must give birth to a child alone.

History

Joshua Aaron Runk created a solo acoustic show in January 2019 and performed live from March through November that year. During those live shows, song ideas were written for a full length album. A song Joshua Aaron Runk wrote titled “No Angels in Providence” changed the entire album format for longer lyrical material. Longer sets onstage during live shows helped cement the new song writing structure. The new dynamics pushed all other songs written for the demo album Story of Hopefully aside. New material was performed live from August 29 - November 07, 2019. Once the song “Last Day” was completed and performed in front of a crowd, a new session of studio time at Starlight Studios was set up to work night and day from the end of December 2019 until June 15, 2020 to complete the Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say album for its official release.

J.J. Starlight Music is an small independent American music company based in North Smithfield, Rhode Island U.S. It combines activities of a record label and music publisher. Starlight Studios produces the music. No Angels in Providence debut album Rock & Roll No Matter What They Say is the companies first published artist and album.