Journey of emotion
AFTER a turbulent few years which saw The Alarm frontman Mike Peters and his wife, Jules, both battle cancer, the Dyserthbased rocker is back with a longawaited EP.
Where Two Rivers Meet draws on the emotional journey the fight against the disease took him and Jules on.
Mike says: “This is the first music from The Alarm in a really long time.
“It represents a lot, with the relapse and with what happened with Jules. The last year has been really intense.
“We have lived through a lot in life and it definitely comes out in the new music. But I can happily say we are now able to look forward again. We can look forward with certainty. It’s a great time to be alive.
“Hope and faith in our lives has brought us to a point where we can express these emotions and this has really come out in our new music.”
The new EP release coincides with World Record Day, 2018, on April 21, a cause close to the frontman’s heart.
“It’s something I really believe in. I remember being a kid and going into Rhyl to pick up my very first LP and riding back on the bus with it.
“Before I could even listen to it, I had the experience of the artwork, the smell, taking in the words printed on the sleeve. “It’s how I first got into music. “The internet has taken a lot of that experience away, the fact that it’s all so instant.
“But it looks like it’s coming full circle. Back in the ’ 90s and 2000s, record shops ended up being flooded by the music industry.
“The bands with the most money behind them got the most exposure. Independent shops were few and far between. Small artists didn’t get a look in.
“But people are going back to independent. It’s giving the industry back to people who love music. I’m all for it.
“Music can be a big reflection of yourself. I mean my kids have realised that, if they go into school with a Black Sabbath LP under their arm, it says a lot about them. They know they are going to look pretty cool.
“It’s the perfect environment for a music revolution. “It’s a whole new playing field. “There’s no such thing as ‘old’ or ‘new’ music any more. Music is just music. Old songs become new songs for a new generation.
“Our breakthrough hit, The Stand, which came out in the ’80s, featured on the show, 13 Reasons Why, on Netflix recently.
“It was huge, and after it aired, 1.5m people listened to that song on a streaming service in just three-quarters of an hour.
“I couldn’t believe it. It goes to show you can listen to older songs in a whole new context.”
On World Record Day, Mike is set to visit five global cities in just 24 hours in celebration of The Alarm’s newest music.
He will set out from home to Car- diff, on to London, then hop on a transatlantic flight to New York, before taking advantage of the time zone differences to head literally back into the past to land in Los Angeles.
“I’ll be armed with my guitar going to cities here in the UK and over in the states. It’s so exciting. I can’t wait to share my excitement in as many places as I can. We have a massive fan base in the US, and I want to incorporate that into the celebrations.
“I would love to have been able to go to Australia to see our fans there, too, if I could.
“The new EP is the prelude to our up-coming album, which comes out on June 29 and it has our blood, sweat and tears ingrained
“It’s a special day for us and it marks the start of a busy schedule.”