Downes Braide Association (DBA) announced the release of the second single and video “Keep On Moving” from their long-awaited new album Celestial Songs (released on 8th September). Following their previous critically acclaimed studio albums, Celestial Songs will be the fifth DBA studio collaboration for Geoff Downes (keyboards) and multi award-winning songwriter Chris Braide (vocals). The album will be released in 3 formats: CD, 2LP and Box Set.
Watch the video for “Keep On Moving” here:
“Keep On Moving” is an uplifting track that picks up on the themes of DBA’s previous album, Halcyon Hymns, as songwriter and vocalist Chris Braide explains: “It’s a nostalgic song in that it’s looking back at a kind of formative period in time, a love letter to the past, really. There’s a reference to Prefab Sprout’s ‘Cars and Girls’ which is one of my favourite songs.”
The mood for “Keep On Moving” is set by Francis Dunnery’s sensitive guitar work before multi-instrumentalist Dave Bainbridge (guitarist for the remainder of the album) shows his prowess on keyboards.
“The track has a great guitar riff,” says Chris, “and an arpeggio guitar picking out the riff, played by Francis. It gives it that kind of shimmery, summery feeling and the keyboard solo is wonderful. Dave Bainbridge played that solo and, I think, it’s one of the finest moments on the album.”
While “Keep On Moving” forms a bridge of continuity to DBA’s previous output, Celestial Songs includes a lot of variety and, generally, leans more towards classic rock.
“We were aiming to get quite a bit more dynamics into this album,” says keyboardist Geoff Downes, “because there were some very quiet pastoral moments. I think it makes it a more interesting listen for people to get their heads around and enjoy. I hope people will appreciate it and get behind it, not just the songwriting and vocals but the overall instrumentation and musicianship is very high on this album. I know that Chris really likes the depth of chord sequences that I put together. This particular collection just really grabbed him and he got it up and running very, very quickly, so I was really pleased about that.”
Celestial Songs marks another musical leap forward for DBA. “As we were writing the songs for the album, they started to become thematic in emotion and feeling,” says Chris Braide, “more classic rock than the predecessor ‘Halcyon Hymns’. The songs were about life and death, time, love, nostalgia, spirituality. Very DBA in fact.”
“DBA’s music has always been about the big questions, the beauty of love and the tragedy of loss, but always with hope, I suppose. ‘Celestial Songs’ is the latest chapter in that series. I hope people enjoy listening to the album as much as we enjoyed writing it and making it.”
Pre-order here: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/
Celestial Songs Track Listing:
1. Look What You Do (6.17)
2. Clear Light (5.00)
3. Keep On Moving (6.36)
4. Darker Side Of Fame (3.56)
5. Hey Kid (3.28)
6. Will To Power (6.23)
7. Heart Shaped Hole (9.06)
8. Dear Petra (3.56)
9. On The Run (5.09)
10. Goodbye To You (Sister Shame) (7.30)
11. Beyond The Stars (10.19)
(Total running time: 67.40)
