A fictional but powerful amalgamation of gritty stories of the very real prescription drug epidemic and mental health crises in the United States. 

Darkly inspired by family, friends, and acquaintances and their struggles and loss of battles with the evil of addiction issues. 

"His mama never got to say goodbye, because 10 years to the day, she died. From the same drugs ingested into her system, just trying to cope with her depression."

Dying Higher

Description written in the fall of 2020, from Nicholas of No Man is Anthem ...

Experiencing the haze that has been in the sky the last few weeks, from sunrise to sunset, I believe that in the present tense and in a future sense, the fire is not that far away. Six years ago, I wrote a song with my bandmate Dusty Hovorka about this exact same topic. 

Actively playing music at that time, this was not a piece that we performed live, actually finished, or ever recorded. In my usual creative, artistic style, the song is abstract. It is complex. It is deep. It is poetic.

The truth of the nature of this story is the relationship between a dying moth and a centipede, surrounded by the forest burning down.

During the quarantine/lockdown of the Spring/Summer of 2020, I recorded this song and others, with the intent of self-releasing an album of our band's original, musical art in the near future. Maybe … 

At the utmost, critical point of these catastrophic events, we grieve for the loss of property, the loss of life, and the devastation of Mother Earth.

During the darkest times, I experience my most lucid writing ability, and the most raw, unique art is produced from these impossibly challenging contexts.

The Forest

Dedicated to Ralph Strong Damon, Nicholas' paternal grandfather, who passed away from a massive heart attack, when Nicholas' father was just 21 years old, in West Ellicott, NY. 

Found in the living room of their family home by Nicholas' father Brian, it was only one year after his wife Jane passed away from breast cancer, and just months after Nicholas' parents were married. 

"A grandfather, you were never one ... but forever, you will live on." 

"Ralph, Grandfather Ralph ... I will find a story to tell."

Old Man (A Song For Grandfather Ralph)

Intro (Mind Like Mine)

This piece is inspired by a song Nicholas wrote over ten years ago, on the subject of too much technology in our modern lives. Now, today, we can definitely feel how everything Internet-based is all-consuming.

"Knowing what we know now, somehow we gotta slow this show down. Again reset the cycle before the system starts to shut down." 

The recording was done in a couple of hours at home, still quarantining, in the first days of the new year, where the namesake “TransmissionX21” originates. The concept of these simple productions is to not only capture pieces of musical artwork that were created years ago with bandmate Dusty Hovorka, but also to present our music in a raw and imperfect format. 

From Nicholas: "I don’t talk much about my guitar work, because I am such a basic and straightforward rhythm player, however, this riff has an important back story. It was possibly the first original piece that I can remember, which I wrote for the guitar, dating back to my early teenage years. The inspiration came from AFI’s “Black Sails in the Sunset,” which was a pivotal album in my evolution from punk, alternative, and grunge rock to music that was more abstract, deep, and intense." 

X n m X i a X

TransmissionX21

Delicately, deeply, darkly ... a love song. The one true writing and piece of this kind by No Man is Anthem.

Take it ... or leave it ... but ... there will always be love.

"I will place your hand in my hand, and you will stay in my grasp ... now, your skin ... I feel no end ... "

Love never ends. Even in death ...

"Where will you be when I am out of life? How will I see when I am blinded by ... ?"

Life. Love. Loss.

You Never End

Taken from and inspired by a poem, written after an experience at a neighborhood park. Nicholas was there with his first son, only 18 months old at the time, when a young boy ran around the playground, pretending to shoot people with a toy gun. The boy was there with multiple siblings and unattended by any adult family members.

"It was only a toy, but they way he held it in his hands, made it feel so real ... like he was the man."

Son Of A Gun

A poem, story, and song for Nicholas' brother ... originally conceived as the first serious verses that Nicholas wrote in college, almost twenty years ago, as he was studying creative writing and fully immersed in poetry, partying, and dark struggles with young adulthood. 

His brother Joel, dealing with his own issues, was always there for him. Joel may not have realized it then, or ever for that matter, how much of a hero he was, and no matter how different they were, how much Nicholas looked up to him. 

These integral verses in Nicholas' early music career were lost, however. They had a place in the prowess of his rap delivery, spitting the bars with speed and a poetic cadence that made this writing his most powerful. But they didn't have a higher purpose. 

From the chorus: "When's the next time we can meet at Mom's, to play the piano jam, handstand singles, man? About life, death, and love growing up, like brothers stand-still, chained down hands still ... "

First performed as an early No Man is Anthem song, the composition and live version got in the way of the emotional expression and connection to the story, dedicated to his brother. 

Well over ten years after first being played live, Nicholas has reimagined this song in the way it should have always been expressed: raw, building, driving, cutting, and loving ... only for his brother. 

Out of the darkness ... into the light. I love you, Joel ... always and forever.

Brothers’ Song (Last Call)

Appreciating where you come from, but going back home and feeling like a stranger, just passing through ... 

"Wondering, wandering, waiting, watching. All the blank faces and empty spaces, memories retraced to the places I've known. But there is only one road that will ever get me home."

A Million Memories Just To Forget

One of the first songs recorded for "A Million Memories Just to Forget," ended up being completely deconstructed and the last one finished.

A story about dreams, floating through life, everyday distractions. A poetic study on the science of sleep ... When we are away, we are never awake.

In the way that only No Man is Anthem can express it ... feel it ... dream it ...

"Sometimes, I close my eyes ... just so I can sleep ... just so I can be ... and I ... dream ... Away again, away again, always away. Away again, away again, always away. Away again, away again, always away ... I am ... never awake."

Good night, and good bye.

Away / Awake

Boyhood friends whose brotherhood is the backbone of their music and songwriting. No Man is Anthem is a two-man tour de force, tearing music a new one and taking on raw, real-life issues. They blend biting acoustic rhythms with a flow of poignant, thought-provoking lyrics to shape a style, energy, and identity that is all their own.

One half rock. The other acoustic rap. Imagining each song as an untold story, poetry in motion. A one-of-a-kind juxtaposition. An allegory for life, love, and loss. 

Years of pressure, years of pain. All built up to this moment, right now. And this, it's only the beginning.

Learning guitar together as pre-teen boys just becoming best friends, Nicholas and Dusty finally found their footing 15 years later down the unpaved path of acoustic rock / art rap, officially becoming No Man is Anthem in 2010. 

Every band says they're different, because every band is trying hard to be different. But with No Man is Anthem, the difference is they are not trying ... to be anything or anyone. They are themselves. They let their fusion of lyrics, rhythm, energy, and style speak volumes for itself. 

Really, it's going to get real.

All about sharing their sound, No Man is Anthem exists to tear down today and put the pieces back together their way. 

Dream, love, be. 

Word.

No Man Is Anthem

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