FEATURED IN NPR MUSIC’S 20|20 SERIES DISCUSSING WHEATUS’ TEENAGE DIRTBAG

NEW ALBUM SHAPE & DESTROY OUT AUGUST 28 

Toronto, ON – August 14, 2020 – Acclaimed singer, songwriter and musician, Ruston Kelly’s new song, Under The Sun, is debuting today. Listen/share here. The track is the latest unveiled from Kelly’s anticipated new album, Shape & Destroy, which will be released August 28 on Rounder Records (pre-order here).

Reflecting on the song, Kelly shares, “Under the Sun is about not going back down the mountain once you near the top. It seems to be a condition of human experience to want to give up most when we are closest to our goals. That’s when it’s hardest. Scariest. It is also the moment when we truly learn what our spirits are made of. Don’t give up when it’s easiest to, great and wonderful things are always on the other side of fear.”

Earlier this week, Kelly was featured as part of NPR Music’s 20|20 series discussing the 20th anniversary of Wheatus’ Teenage Dirtbag, two versions of which are included on Kelly’s Dirt Emo Vol 1, released last fall. Of Kelly’s interpretations of the classic emo anthem, NPR Music praises, “Teenage Dirtbag is the guest of honor…once as a quiet solo meditation, and again as a country-pop panorama as splendidly realized as any of Kelly’s own best work, with revoiced chords, a slowed tempo, soaring pedal steel and the artist’s gruff tenor selling the hell out of it all…Kelly manages to evoke the song’s core sentiment with a startling sincerity. Listen closely to the band version, recorded live onstage, and you’ll hear the crowd singing along not in drunken ardor, but gently, like a church choir.” Read the full feature here.

Co-produced by Kelly and long-time collaborator Jarrad K (Kate Nash, Weezer) and recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in upstate New York, Shape & Destroy documents Kelly’s journey through maintaining his sobriety and facing his past. He addresses these experiences and setbacks with unvarnished honesty, grace and conviction across 13 new songs including previously released album tracks, Pressure,  Radio Cloud, Rubber and Brave. Of Brave, Men’s Health proclaimed, “Be prepared: this song is a sledgehammer straight to your heart,” while Rolling Stone declared it “poignant.”

Continuing to receive widespread attention, Kelly was recently featured in an exclusive, in-depth profile at Entertainment Weekly, which praises, “There are little reminders woven all across the songs of Shape & Destroy…Reminders to have grace, to be forgiving to yourself and others, and to stay sober when your brain is screaming for reprieve. Profound reminders that life itself can be beautiful, even when the walls around us are caving in” and continues describing Kelly as, “one of the sharpest, most empathetic songwriters working today.”

“Making this record definitely taught me that I don’t want to be selfish,” Kelly comments reflecting on the album. “I want to channel something larger than myself and give myself to the process as fully as possible, because these songs also become the story of whoever hears them. Whatever someone might get out of listening to this record and hearing me express myself in this way, it’s completely theirs.”

In addition to Kelly (vocals, acoustic guitar, high-strung acoustic, electric guitar, piano, percussion, sandpaper, mandolin) and Jarrad K (electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, piano, Rhodes, Hammond M3, percussion, student bells, background vocals), the album also features Kelly’s father Tim “TK” Kelly (steel guitar, background vocals), Eli Beaird (bass, background vocals) and Eric Slick (drums, percussion, background vocals) as well as special guests Gena Johnson, Abby Kelly and Kacey Musgraves on background vocals.

Shape & Destroy marks yet another breakthrough moment for the Nashville-based artist, who released his full-length debut album, Dying Star, in 2018. Also co-produced by Kelly and Jarrad K, Dying Star debuted to widespread critical acclaim and landed on several Best of 2018 lists including Rolling Stone, Paste, UPROXX, American Songwriter and NPR Music, which declared, “Kelly digs down deep on Dying Star to fearlessly put forth a set of songs steeped in emotional twists, turns and complications…This here is powerful stuff.” Additionally, Rolling Stone proclaimed, “one of the most magnetic releases of the year,” and The Fader praised, “a uniquely emotional and raw collection about our ability to build a new life from the ashes.” Kelly also released Dirt Emo Vol. 1 this past fall – a project consisting of eight new covers of his favourite emo songs including Dashboard Confessional’s, Screaming Infidelities, featuring the band’s lead singer Chris Carrabba, Wheatus’, Teenage Dirtbag, The Carter Family’s, Weeping Willow and Taylor Swift’s, All Too Well, which earned praise from Swift herself.

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