To create art for art’s sake is as pure an intention as a band can have. Writing a song that may never even see the light of day, but speaks to the very reason that you want to create in the first place. Putting joy, connection and fulfilment above anything else, and reaping the rewards that come from pushing such human endeavours. It’s a noble and selfless position to place yourself in, one that sits at the very root of why we all fall in love with music in the first place.
For As It Is, it was an absolute necessity to do things like this.
It was the only way that they could even attempt to recapture what once brought them together 13 years ago. A moment in time where Patty Walters, Ben Biss, Ali Testo, and Patrick Foley could reconvene for the first time in a long time, look back on the highest highs and lowest lows they have experienced together, and draw hope and inspiration from them once again.
From that, they have created ‘As It Is, the first body of work made as a quartet in eight years. A record that finds them at the most comfortably bold they have ever been, delivered via the most beautiful brand of collective catharsis. However, to even consider reaching this sort of solace, a different kind of work needed to be done first.
For Patty, that meant finding a purpose outside of the band. For so long, he had felt like he had no choice but to be in As It Is. That, without it, there was nothing else. To listen to 2022’s ‘I WENT TO HELL AND BACK’, the band’s fourth full-length album and only piece of work to not feature Ben or Foley following their respective departures in 2019 and 2020, is to hear Patty in fight or flight, unfurling some seriously dark thoughts and making music that bleak because it felt like it was all that he had.
But in stepping away from not just the band but music altogether around the birth of 2024 to seek professional help to exorcise demons, muddle through trauma and realise that there is a life beyond music, he was able to realise that he can be all of the things that he wants to be. He just needed to relocate who he was within them, not who he thought he had to be.
“I realised the most important thing for me to do was find happiness, fulfilment and a sense of identity outside of all of this,” he explains. “So, I found stability. Found help. Found that happiness. Then I slowly started to realise that the possibility of returning to music wasn’t a regression but an opportunity to introduce more purpose into my life and use it as an outlet for self-expression. That’s always been the best way that I’ve communicated with the world, through songs and performance, and I had been denying myself that for so long.”
It feels serendipitous that around the same time, Ben had contacted and reconvened with Patty, not as a bandmate but as a best friend to show support through the emotional turmoil that unloading so much from within can produce. The band never even came into the equation at this point; this, instead, was an opportunity for the two of them to just be. A support network without any add-ons or other intentions. Joined then by Ali and Foley for meetups, heart-to-hearts, and general hangs, starting in The Eagle in Brighton, this was four friends loving each other as that, and nothing else, for the first time in a very long time.
“I think that Ali is the only one of us with an actual brother,” Patty laughs. “But I now have brothers because of As It Is. Because of how much they loved me and showed up for me when I needed them. I feel like we are going to be brothers first always and till the end because of that.”
Before all of this, Patty and Ben had attempted to write music as a pair, not for anything, just because it’s what they had always done. After realising he wasn’t ready for it and taking those steps to properly heal through actual therapy rather than through writing lyrics alone, only then did the conversation turn to the possibility of As It Is being their focus once more. But things could never be the same as they once were. Why would they want them to be? So, if they were going to do this, it was going to be entirely on their terms.
It’s because of this that the first fruit of their labours, the raw, rallying and very real ‘Lose Your Way & Find Yourself’ took almost a year to the day of these conversations to be mixed, mastered and ready to go. 365 days of love, care, consideration, and patience have gone into it, a reminder that this is a choice rather than a necessity, and that really making sense of the heaviness in your chest takes time. What would follow would be three additional trips into the studio with producer Kel Pinchin, at the Ranch Production House in Southampton, allowing them to space out their writing rather than forcing it. For the first time in their career, the band were making an album whilst not being in the middle of at least 200 days of the year on the road. When you are spinning so many plates, just trying to make it to the next venue, you don’t have time to face any sort of demon or make sense of any trauma, let alone let anyone else know what you’re going through.
“We weren’t previously able to heal and grow when we were in the thick of it,” Patty admits. “We just had to cope and do our best, and within that, not always share that with each other. We could only share it with ourselves. When we were writing our second and third records, we were thinking about the bigger rooms we wanted to play and the bands we wanted to tour with as a result. This one was about as long as we are bringing out who we are and ourselves into the writer’s room. It’s not about what happens after we write, record and release. This is just who we are.”
Such space to make sense of not just their own journey but also that of their brothers has resulted in some of the most emotionally stark, curiously brash and, ultimately, healing songs the band has ever committed to tape. Musically, rather than attempting to fit in any sort of particular scene, the quartet have spoken to the kind of sounds they actually adore instead of what they think others do. There are as many flickers of The Starting Line and The Early November as there are Counting Crows; big, bold rock songs with the earnestness and euphoria that make them want to pursue this life in the first place. Forged in a space where every instrument was ready to go as and when, rather than the regimented practice of tracking each element block by block, allowed spontaneous creativity to take precedent and more luscious and layered songs to blossom and bloom.
And lyrically, it is as warts and all as they have ever been, and that’s saying something for a band that has worn their hearts on their sleeves in the way they have over the last 14 years. Looking back on the people they have been with the most open eyes they have ever had, being honest in the ups and downs of what they experienced, and writing down their findings, the result is as nostalgic as it is earnest. From the raw storytelling of ‘Ruin My Life’ to the hope speckled ‘What If It All Works Out’, the open looking back of ‘Do You Remember?’ to the curious understanding of ‘Marilyn’, every song holds a different sort of sentiment. A realisation, defined by a situation, person or thought process, that speaks for who the band used to be, as well as who they thought they used to be, as much as who they really are now. It is the sound of healing in real time, which makes for a band rejuvenated, impassioned, and more awake and alive than they have been since their inception.
“This is an amalgamation of the last 12 years as well as a new level of honesty and transparency,” Ben explains. “This is the core and crux of who we are. We’re never going to change from now on. It really is more about our relationship with each other and how, through everything, the four of us still have this bond, both as friends and musically. That has been tested a lot through the years, and these songs are now a real testament to our overarching brotherhood and love for each other.”
It’s because of this that the quartet knew that this had to be their Self-Titled record. For any band, making such a statement can either signal a moment of reinvention or a doubling down on what you believe defines you by reconnecting with what initially pushed you. And though the former is not strictly untrue, for Patty and Ben, the latter is what this whole experience is about. In remembering why they started this band in the first place, with the wisdom, experience, and drive they now possess all these years later, they feel they almost come full circle. Though in taking stock of what it takes to nurture something as precious as this and not viewing this as an all or nothing situation, both within their friendship and relationship with the music, they have produced a piece of art that will inspire, instil belief and live long in the hearts and souls of all who let it in.
It is everything that As It Is was, is and will be, and it means the absolute world to them.
“You can never manufacture genuine connection with people,” Ben remarks. “Just find what is honest to you and honest to your journey, and that’s all any artist has to offer to the world. This is our reality, and reality is looking a bit more positive these days. We’re a band known for four quite depressing albums. But days fluctuate, and things change. That’s mental health. But to be able to look at everything with a different and more positive outlook on the future is all that we wanted to say.”
“This is the spirit and intention of the joy that formed As It Is in the first place,” Patty adds. “It is reconnecting with the kids that we were when we started to write songs. And now, we’re showing up with life in our eyes. We can listen to and support each other. This is the most in control and confident the band has been in a long time, but also the most proud. In the past, I had no choice but to be in As It Is. This new era of the band is my choice. Our choice. A choice. But in having it back, it means having maybe the biggest piece of myself back, too.”
