Steen – Red Lights
ARTIST NAME: Steen
SONG TITLE: Red Lights
RELEASE DATE: 04/02/21
GENRE: Alternative
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Skating out of Orange County is STEEN – your new favorite indie band. The former USC students/ athletes chose to forgo a promising future in sports to pursue entertainment and now, four months into their music debut have managed to rack up over two million streams across all music platforms and are now actively touring Southern California. A combination of the eclectic Sonics of SoCal mixed with their deep cultural palette passed on by their multi-ethnic home, STEEN’s brand continues to be a music stand out, proving to be “genre-less,” the phrase used by the LA Flaunt Magazine describing the boys. Their surf punk acoustics, confessional raw vocals, and melodies matched with an edgy, carefree, fashion aesthetic set them apart. STEEN carry themselves with radiant intensity and charisma emulating music icons such as David Bowie and Michael Jackson, all while maintaining the local grit that SoCal legends such as “The Red Hot Chili Peppers”, “Sublime” and also today’s disruptive contemporary LA artists such as Odd Future (All inspirations of STEEN). The continuation of “what never was” in their previous ventures, the STEEN brothers are following their vocation and are here to show the world they are here to stay.
LYRICS:
Who’s there?
Go and say it
Write it out
I’ve done seen
Full days
I’m seasoned now
Paid for one
Once again
A fool is coughing out
It’s scorching
None of what matters more in my eyes
Seeing right outside of the world
And the Red Lights
In your flesh
In your pride, oh
Yeah the Red Lights
Fill the gas
Fuel the fire, oh
I can see
Where are you gonna breathe?
I can see
The fire burning me
I can see
Red Lights on the streets
All our misery
All out misery
But you won’t find it from me, no
No, you won’t find it from me
No one confiding in me
She’s not afraid of the wildfire
Yeah, yeah, yeah
So you came
Found your flame
Uncontained
It burned away
I saw a vision, a prophecy
I tried to salvage you out of me
Second chance
Dial a friend
Vital mends and violent ends
Controlling balance and boundaries
I burned the callus, you proud of me?
And the Red Lights
It’ll flash in the fire, oh
Yeah the Red Lights
Feel the gas and you cry, oh
I can see
Where you’re calling me
I can see
The fire burning me
I can see
Red Lights on the street
There’s fires on the street
Fires on the street
Fires on the street
Fires on the street
It’s alright
It’s alright
She’s alright
Be alright
Inspiration: Our surroundings… We’ve stood dead center in the culture since youth — the highs, lows, growth and tragedy, and everything in between.
Music Style: Growing up in southern California, you get so many different tastes in music. Skate culture, to underground raging to dance and cruise riding… Our goal is to mix everything and shake it up.
Multi-Genre Music: There is a special place for “Genre-less music” that is something to be admired. Most people emulate what they hear, see and feel… But to be able to create a boiling pot of Sonics takes detailed creativity.
Reaching Fans: Grassroots – face to face introducing ourselves and letting them know who we are, what we are trying to accomplish, and that they can also do whatever the hell they want to do.
Songwriting: The lyrics are to us, the most important because they are like Easter eggs. Most people don’t really care at all, but the ones that dive deeper unravel our secret messages.
Melody: Hum whatever comes to you first, and typically from there, a few words pop out and most of the time, end up on the actual record.
Recording Studio: In your living room with moody lights and good tea…
Song’s Factors: Tempo, melody, and urgent authenticity… You know within seconds if something feels soulful.
Feelings: These days, bored! We’re super, super indie so we do all of our own marketing – aka time for marketing and email blasting until our eyes hurt.
Change: We plan on bringing fun back – this first release was a reflection of how we felt at the time… But at our core, we are just dudes… Dudes from Orange County, California.
Release: Red Lights is our debut single – nobody knew we would step into the light as music artists, so the shock factor and the expectation is always satisfying for us.
Goals: STEEN is going to be a legacy brand – it’s more than music for us and we are willing to prove to the world that we deserve that. Touring is the most urgent priority.
Obstacles: By keeping blinders on and focusing on what you can control… Which is our effort first and dedication.
Song: “Once you cut through the feel-good acoustics of the record, “Red Lights” is heavy and encompassed in pain. It’s a play on humanity’s fatal flaws, mental health, and addiction. It’s so common to fully recognize toxic behaviors, yet continue to full-heatedly live in misery. Amid the outcry and the fire burning inside, when you lived in the fire for as long as many have, you can burn through your own demises and see the other side.” At the end of the day, it’s our duty to do the best we can, even when we feel alone—when we experience life’s everyday wildfires.
Artist’s Name and Album’s Title: STEEN is our family’s last name – It’s Dutch for Stone… Growing up it became more of a mentality and it stuck. It makes us feel powerful.
Press:
Flaunt
Wonderland