War Strings' distorted heaviness of "Seventeen"

"I believe in you"

War Strings' new single Seventeen, the second half of the double single (released with Archer) is a quick burst of angst ridden alt rock heavy on guitars, a big runaway beat and Andrew Stogel's internal distorted wail. Both tracks are from his upcoming June release called "Who Cares How It Ends" which is informed by his experiences when a head injury found the singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist bed ridden for eight months. The album became "an amalgamation of depression, love, pain, darkness and newfound light" for Stogel. Life becomes special when it nearly ends.

-Robb Donker Curtius








THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

For the past two years, Andrew Stogel has been through the wringer. A major head injury caused the multi-instrumentalist to be bedridden for nearly eight months; this isolation and immobility conspired to make him feel like he was on his deathbed. Through the perceptual distortion he experienced from the injury came a new musical perspective. While still stuck in bed, Stogel began the process of recording with engineers since he couldn’t look at screens and didn’t even have the strength to lift a guitar. Until then, this music existed solely in the depths of his mind. Over the course of 3 months (and mostly from his bed), Stogel made what would become War Strings’ debut record, Who Cares How It Ends. It became an amalgamation of depression, love, pain, darkness and newfound light for Stogel. Who Cares How It Ends is also representative of how Stogel wanted to approach making music and reconstructing his life: embracing imperfections and realizing that you only live once. 

Born in Missouri and raised in Los Angeles, Stogel has been developing his craft from a young age, fronting bands like indie-psych rock outfit Dreamer Dose and the shoegaze-tinged pop band LOVEYOU. War Strings is an evolution of those projects, but full of more life experience and a grittier sound.

Throughout the 13 songs on the album, there are influences from artists who have inspired Stogel -- everyone from Nirvana and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to Sparklehorse and Lil Peep. Stogel enlisted producer Chris Cody (Beach House, Smith Westerns, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) to emulate a sound that could be described as a grittier, grungier Sparklehorse.

On opener “Right Side,” Stogel meditates on his depression, looking for meaning as he sings, "Look, just like somebody I thought I knew/ Chasing down phantom, it’s always too much” Stogel further explores the idea of isolation as he describes feeling like an outcast over a starburst of guitar riffs on "My Alien Heart.” The sunny disposition of “Red Roses” overshadows the meaning behind the track, which is an expressive song feeling lonely and calling out for a helping hand. Over fuzzed-out guitars, the timbre of Stogel’s voice -- warm, but clogged -- recalls a Girls-era Christopher Owens on “One Shot,” “The heavens given me a shot/ I just fuck it up, with everyone I love I fuck it up,” Stogel laments. With “Tragedy,” Stogel considers unrequited love in a dream wistfully singing, “She’ll never listen to my love song.”

War Strings’ Who Cares How It Ends is a project based on persistence and passion, full of Stogel’s contemplative spirit during one of the darkest periods of his life. The album will be released in June of 2020.