Sermon is an anonymous music force based out of London, dedicated to preaching the concept of spiritual and theological balance. They will release their debut Birth Of The Marvellous, an ambitious, sprawling cinematic vision of an album, on March 22 via Prosthetic Records. You can listen to the first track on the album, The Descend below exclusively with Prog. Birth Of The Marvellous is available to pre-order here.
Sermon provided Prog with the following statement to accompany The Descend...
“The Descend, the first song. The opener. The set of sounds that creates a context for a project that I never knew would happen properly. It was a long time ago now, six years almost to the day, that this was written. A direct emotional response to my father’s terminal illness. The chorus vocal melody if I remember rightly, may actually have come about in my head after he told me what was wrong with him. An unusual reaction on reflection, but it’s become a worthwhile one.
“The song is the starting point and as a consequence, the first song for the album. In many ways it set up the ‘rules’ for the rest of the project. By this, I mean I chose certain types of instruments and sounds, using these restraints to create a core theme throughout the rest of project. It can be an ugly word ‘restraint’, but I think restraint and limitation breeds creativity (and contrarily do the opposite sometimes), as it tends to challenge you to think differently with the pieces placed in front of you. The art of thinking sideways so to speak. It also lead to a story-esque theme being established right away. Immortality. What better way to deal with an extinguishing life, than using a character from an old folk story who resents the idea of a perpetual life?
“To anyone who listens, this is going to be sort of new to them. But to me this has been an almost infinite process of writing, rewriting, waiting, changing etc et al. As I write this, the project is almost a nothing. I’m a nobody. About 10-15 people have heard this before you read this.
“However, from today Sermon is now a real life entity. As I said above, I’m sort of a no one, I’ve never been in a signed act before. Hell, I’m barely a musician, just someone who really enjoys making things. This being one of them. I have chosen anonymity, not to be pretentious, just to sort of guard my other life. However I never really wanted to create a character or persona to lead the project, as it always seems to be polarising in the music world. A bit of this is unavoidable, but I really just hope it means I can be open and transparent with fans (though, that’s yet to be seen) and media.
“While I’m the driver and songwriter behind the project, it certainly wasn’t completed solo. I have a very dear friend, also an extraordinarily talented drummer who believed in the songs. The producer, Scott Atkins of Grindstone studio, who did a wonderful job of capturing a performance and pushed the songs so much further than they ever were...Certainly more than I ever could alone. And to the hugely talented set of 6 musicians we need to perform this record in its entirety live. To all, I thank you.
“So to anyone who listened, thank you. To anyone who enjoyed it, thank you even more. To anyone who hated it, I don’t blame you. Either way, it’s a relief to have this exist in the world. It’s been heavy.”
