PropertyOfZack is glad to be posting our new Track-By-Track with Select Start. The band released their new EP, The New Atlantic, on May 20th. The EP was produced by Lee Dyess who has worked with Daniel Lancaster’s, the band’s lead singer, brother in Go Radio. Read up on the meaning behind each of the tracks below! 

The Title of the CD THE NEW ATLANTIC 
With every release we have a conflict with digital and natural (or analog). With The Rotary (2007) it was electronics taking over communication with cells and text messaging and such. with “<3” it was electronics taking over relationships with people form loving relationship on the internet. with “The New Atlantic” we have electronics taking over human nature. 
  
A Man Amongst Gentlemen 
This song was the most time consuming for the band. I also feel like it is the best representation of what we tried to achieve with The New Atlantic. Lee Dyess (producer) bought a trombone just for this song and Matt Reisinger (keys & vocals) learned how to play it in the studio along with learning how to play the mandolin.  A lot of our songs play out like stories. This one in particular is about a man who recently left a relationship and just start sleeping around with anyone he meets and tries really hard to be a huge jerk in the process only to realize he doesn’t have a clue about love or true happiness. We wrote the song as a time piece of sorts, we don’t reference anything from present day in the song. We keep it very, very very old school.
 
Hands To The Ceiling
This song was an experience with raw doo-wop melodies and harmonies. It’s the funkiest song on the record and it’s our favorite to play. The beginning of each verse has a very Jackson 5 feel. The song theme is about the definition of innocence and whether not accepting natural feelings about sex and relationships a good thing.
 
Read Black and White
This was a milestone song for the band. It was the first song written in The New Atlantic sessions that made us realize the direction we were going. It helped us formulate the rest of the record. We don’t work with co-writers so a lot of songs were written and thrown out. This one was the first that stuck. We love it. It’s about someone you really care about leaving. For college, the military, touring, anything really. Everyone hates when some they love about leaves for a long time, even when you know it’s for the best.
 
Only You
A simple love song that focuses on three-part folk melodies. The violin in the song was done by Seth Mann in a clutch. He killed it. We also did all the orchestral instruments live at a middle school. It was amazing. It was huge project that came out beautiful.
 
The (Pretty) Good Life
A song about reminiscing. The song was planned to be all acoustic, but halfway through recording it we decided to make it full band. Very Weezer influenced pop melodies.
 
Hold Your Ground
This song was means a lot to us. It’s loosely about the band’s rebirth with Daniel and a new record. Everyone is nervous about putting out their art, we are no exception. We have a lot of really loyal and awesome fans, this is an anthem to them. We know they have our backs.
 
So Far
This song makes us so proud. All six of us sing this song, it was recorded in ONE take, and there is ZERO vocal corrections. We ad no idea we could pull this off, but it came out amazing. Jason Polo had a little melody floating around and we just decided to make it all a cappella. Words were written, mics were set up, the record button was hit. That’s the story so far.