Craig Owens of badXchannels
photo credit: Liza Torgerson

badxchannels

RELEASES TWO NEW SONGS, “The Spine” and “Sad, Ecstatic”

**Premieres via Alternative Press**

CRAIG OWENS’ eclectic music project badXchannels have premiered two brand new songs, “The Spine” and “Sad, Ecstatic” via Alternative Press on Friday, May 18, 2018. The new batch of songs continue to showcase the musical evolution that Craig Owens has undergone over the past few years. The songs are now available via all digital music retailers.

“The Spine” is an ethereal journey featuring a lush synth atmosphere that helps build up the emotional catharsis in the lyrics, climaxing with an electronic breakdown. “The Spine is an inner dialogue themed track. An up close and personal song about how life is too short to spend living in fear” says Craig of the track. “‘‘Undivided will build the spine in this body of mine.’ The expressive explosion at the end of the song signifies the journey that we go on once we’ve chosen to walk through that fear and fire, head first into the true growth of our lives.” Bandmate TRENT CLARK says that “We wanted to create an intensity with this track, but we took a completely different avenue getting there. This song is all about the colors…once again we wanted to showcase the sounds we’ve been working with most recently, and make something between a ballad and a heavy hitter. We aim to be cinematic with our music, and this song really feels like it takes you through a journey.”

badXchannels: “The Spine”
Link: https://soundcloud.com/badxchannels/the-spine

Taking a harder-edged approach, “Sad, Ecstatic” is reminiscent of one of Craig’s former projects Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.) had it collided at the intersection of industrial music in the vein ofNine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, and 808 beats from modern trap music. “The songs were written collaboratively by all 3 of us. Spreading out the duties of soundscape, lyrics, melodies, and instrumentation on the tracks” continues Craig. “This helped us achieve the songs & sounds which I believe best match what I had in mind originally when creating this project. Trent meanwhile says that “This song was so much fun to write. I think the big inspiration with this one was trying to do something to showcase the energy that badXchannels can bring to the table.” Trent continues by saying “We have spent a lot of time fostering all these different sounds, and we wanted to diversify how we utilize them….thus ‘Sad, Ecstatic’. The one word that could describe our thought process with this one was ‘intensity’. It started out with this this really raunchy guitar riff our friend Hiram played, and we were both like ‘that sounds SICK’ and we just built it from there! Experimentation was the protocol on this track.”

badXchannels: “Sad, Ecstatic”
Link: https://soundcloud.com/badxchannels/sad-ecstatic

The mastermind behind such seminal alternative bands Chiodos, Cinematic Sunrise, The Sound of Animals Fighting, and Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows (D.R.U.G.S.), Owens took some time off after the final breakup of Chiodos in early 2015 to re-find his muse. In the two years since, he has moved back home to Detroit and has gotten back to what drew him to music in the first place – the desire to create and shape the sound within his soul. Keeping a low profile and recording music as badXchannels, Owens drew inspiration from a broad swath of music that includes film soundtrack-scores, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean. Having collaborated with such luminaries as Dr. Dre, D12, Fifty Grand (of TeamSesh) and receiving support from underground superstar Bones, Owens leaves no stone unturned, creating music from inspiration rather than record label demands.

With more music on the horizon and more surprises in store, Craig and his new cohort Trent Clark of rock band RadioDriveBy are planning on experimenting and writing new material. “We’re going to continue releasing single after single over the next few months, begin touring, and continue on the journey that seems to be just getting started with badXchannels,” he concludes. “The goal is to continue releasing quality content and leave a legacy in the strength, and entirety of our musical catalogue – to communicate with the world and hopefully leave an indentation for those who feel the same way about life as we do.”