Lonely Ghost Records staple Arise, Sir! is a solo project from Alex Kessler, a Columbus, Indiana native. A follow-up EP after his 2019 release Something About This Needs to be Changed, Kessler was able to create Obviously Icarus during the throws of COVID-19. Taking a page from Say Anything and The Good Life, the EP is full of acoustic echos and layered vocals reminiscent of Lua or Every Day and Night by Bright Eyes.
The EP holds true to the track’s namesake of Icarus; a tale from Greek mythology about flying too close to the sun, a metaphor for arrogance and foolish pride. The lyrics in “Obviously Icarus” show the track’s significance to hubris and expectations of others, “I flew close to the sun too many times and when my wings burned through, well I made yours mine.” The overall theme shows death as a reminder during the EP. Showing confidence and structure with Obviously Icarus, the EP is a strong acoustic collection where each track stands alone.
This is your first release of 2020, the craziest year of our lifetimes. How does it feel to be releasing music?
Honestly, it doesn’t feel much different than when I released the first EP way back in February 2019. I think if you asked me this question earlier in the year I would have some stronger feelings, but by now I think I’m just kind of over it all. I do have more of a hope that my music can do something for anyone at all though. Rather than just putting it out because I wrote it and wanted to, I do really hope that these songs can bring some semblance of light into somebody’s life you know?
We’ve heard you also have a full band album coming out before the year is over, what are you most excited about with these new releases?
Yes I am beyond excited for that one to come out. I think, besides just being excited to finally release something again, I’m most excited about my confidence in these tracks. I think both of these projects are comprised of songs that I almost needed to make so it feels good to hit the mark that I think I made for myself. Specifically for Obviously Icarus I’m most excited for this incredibly poorly made on purpose music video I made with some friends. None of us had any sort of video making experience but we all had a really fun time making it and we think it’s pretty ridiculous. In a good way of course. For the full band EP, I’m just excited to get that one out. I really pushed myself on that one and think that that’s where I did what I’ve always wanted to do with music.
This is more of an acoustic EP, was that a conscious choice to make one acoustic and one full band?
They were conscious choices, but not choices made with both in mind. I’ll always be more of a full band artist I think. I did however have the idea of two EPs in one year since maybe January this year? It’s already been 20 months since EP1 and I wanted to “catch up” my discography for all that time spent not releasing. For Icarus, I’ve had the idea of a home-recorded, quickly put together acoustic project for a bit, it was just a matter of getting the right songs for it. I’m really glad I could make it happen and especially glad it was with these three songs.
If things go back to normal in 2021, what are you most optimistic about?
I think I’m most optimistic about the right people coming out of the woodwork that can actually change things for the better. There’s been a huge uptick in protesting and awareness for an incredibly large amount of issues and I think all that’s missing is for the right people to be where they need to be to make the changes happen. I think Covid has managed to keep the most we can do from happening this year, but the fact that changes have happened already despite Covid make me optimistic that once we can figure it out, we can finally do what needs to be done.
