New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Pop punk legends
New Found Glory have shared new single and music video "Get Me Home" off of their upcoming acoustic album Make The Most Of It. The track is raw, direct, realistic - despite what plans you have for the future there are problems that might arise to change the course of those plans, something guitarist Chad Gilbert knows all too well.
"Major surgery, battling cancer and pleading with the doctors and surgeons to do all in their power to get you home and back to the future you've always hoped for," he explains. "['Get Me Home' is] heavy stuff but wrapped into one big sing along."
New Found Glory recently announced their new acoustic album, Make The Most Of It, out January 20 via Revelation Records. The album features seven brand new tracks written in the wake of Gilbert's cancer diagnosis - including "Get Me Home" and lead single "Dream Born Again," which is out now here - alongside seven live acoustic versions of fan favorites. Make The Most Of It is a rumination on what it means to grieve, to live, to approach every day with appreciation and a sense of fulfillment.
In December 2021, fresh off the celebratory Pop Punk's Still Not Dead Tour in support of their 10th album, Forever + Ever x Infinity, Gilbert was found unresponsive in bed at home, rushed to a local hospital, and diagnosed with an 8-inch cancerous tumor, a rare pheochromocytoma. Hospital stays, surgery, and a long road to recovery followed - but, in typical
New Found Glory fashion, so did the songs.
"I didn't want this to be the 'cancer record' originally," Gilbert admits. "But when we went on tour and people started hearing the story and connecting to it, I gave up on trying to control the narrative. Not all bands are dealt these cards, but we were. Let's take these songs and help the disease get awareness and raise money for a cause that's working on education and research for my rare cancer."
A percentage of proceeds from Make The Most Of It will go to The Pheo Para Alliance, the longest standing internationally recognized leader in advocacy for, and awareness of, pheochromocytoma.
New Found Glory have also released a limited-edition charity shirt to benefit The Pheo Para Alliance.
"Even though the songs are sadder, they're still hopeful," Gilbert says. "You hear so much online
about mental health and fear and anxiety. I feel proud that we can release an album with joy and honesty in a way that will hopefully make people less fearful of life. A lot of times we punish ourselves for things that might never happen. I'm going through something that did happen, but doing it with hope and joy and a greater appreciation."
As
New Found Glory can attest, life moves quickly. Just three years after forming in
Coral Springs, Florida, in 1997, the group were fast-tracked from local upstarts to mainstream stars on the back of ebullient pop melodies and hardcore-tinged breakdowns, setting off a blast of pop-punk dynamite that still lights the torch for modern acts more than two decades later. They became the voice of an underground movement, spurring iconic gold and platinum records (2000's New Found Glory, 2002's Sticks & Stones, and 2004's Catalyst), countless MTV appearances, an entire subgenre (easycore) and sold-out tours the world over.
The band's forthcoming acoustic album, Make The Most Of It (Revelation Records), tackles the last year head-on with their most emotional and cathartic collection of songs to date.
In many ways, it's remarkable it took
New Found Glory 25 years to release an acoustic album. Masters of stop-gap invention - from the ever-popular From The Screen To Your
Stereo movie theme cover EPs to their hardcore alter egos International Superheroes Of Hardcore - the band have balanced the impulses of new and nostalgic better than nearly every one of their peers.
That continues on Make The Most Of It, which also features live versions of seven
New Found Glory classics recorded in Nashville in 2022 during the band's NFG Unplugged
Total Request Livestream & Concert. The live session tones down the caustic energy of a
New Found Glory show but strips the band down to their bare essentials: Pundik's unmistakable vocal and wholly resonant songwriting. When the band lead the audience through a sing-along on their very first single, "Hit Or Miss," it's hard not to get choked up at how important
New Found Glory still is to fans 25 years in.
New Found Glory is Jordan Pundik (lead vocals), Chad Gilbert (guitar), Ian Grushka (bass guitar) and Cyrus Bolooki (drums).
