Machines Kept You Alive

Machines Kept You Alive (CGI TEARZ Remix)

The life of a touring musician isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. The endless miles separating one from friends, family and a warm bed, and the alienation that rift creates, becomes a trial of endurance that quickly disintegrates all but the truly dedicated. For Fireworks, the answer is to find strength together, as one; five friends creating music, and in the end, their own brand of Gospel.

Thus Gospel, the Detroit-based quintet’s second full-length and follow-up to 2009’s All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion, finds the band at a crucial crossroads, both creatively and personally. Their rookie growing pains behind them, on the new record the band penned their most powerful and captivating music to date, orbiting a central theme of inspiration amid sacrifice. Fortunately it only takes a matter of seconds to hear that the group’s efforts have hardly been in vain.
 
“This record just makes so much more sense with us, and I think it shows,” says guitarist and frequent lyricist Chris Mojan. “We basically all went into the studio and fed off each other. I think once people hear this record, they'll be like, ‘This is the record I expected you guys to put out one day. This is totally you guys.’ It doesn't sound like anything else.”

Fireworks—which also includes vocalist Dave Mackinder, bassist Kyle O’Neil, guitarist Brett Jones and drummer Tymm Rengers—formed in Detroit in 2005, and released their first EP, We Are Everywhere, on Run For Cover Records in 2006. Those early recordings and some serious DIY touring eventually attracted the attention of esteemed indie Triple Crown Records, which signed the band in 2008 and re-released We Are Everywhere, before quickly sending the band into the studio to cut a full-length debut. Fireworks teamed with producer/New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert and in 2009 dropped All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion, instantly staking their place among the leaders of the present melodic punk revival. Several high-profile tours followed, including stints with NFG, Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong and Saves The Day.