THE HOME TEAM SURPRISE RELEASE ALBUM OF REIMAGINATIONS
Thrilling Records has launched It Lives, It Changes today, a brand-new collection of reimagined tracks that finds Seattle quartet The Home Team revisiting some of the most monumental moments from their back catalogue. This release injects a fresh perspective into fan favourites spanning their entire career, transforming them with reworked arrangements and entirely new titles, while also treating listeners to a brand-new original song titled ‘Spirit’. The resulting collection perfectly preserves the core energy of the original pieces while granting each track a distinct, revitalised identity.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do for the better part of the last decade and finally getting the chance to explore these ideas feels amazing,” shares vocalist Brian Butcher. “We hope this reimagined album can breathe new life into these songs for our fans while we gear up for the next release.”
This reflective release lands just ahead of the band's highly anticipated, previously announced UK headline tour kicking off this November. The Home Team will be bringing their explosive live show across the Atlantic, joined on all dates by special guests Arrows In Action and True North.
Speaking of the tour, frontman Brian Butcher says, “I’m so glad we’re able to bring The Crucible of Life tour to our fans in the UK. We put so much into this show and the people of Britain deserve to see it before we turn the page to the next chapter of THT. To be coming back to headline some of the venues that we’ve previously supported at feels amazing!!”
UK HEADLINE DATES
NOVEMBER
03: MANCHESTER Academy 2
04: GLASGOW Garage
06: BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
07: CARDIFF The Great Hall
08: LONDON O2 Forum Kentish Town
10: NEWCASTLE Northumberland University SU
11: LEEDS Stylus
Tickets can be purchased HERE.
The old adage suggests that if you do something you love, you will never work a day in your life, but reality dictates that reaching a place where that love can truly thrive requires immense dedication. The path is naturally filled with peaks and valleys, alongside those heavy moments where the effort feels entirely futile, yet every single step of the journey proves worthwhile in the end.
It has been a long, gruelling road for the Seattle heavyweights, who have spent nearly a decade scraping, scrapping, exploring, and reinventing themselves to arrive on the precipice of something genuinely extraordinary. While they have successfully risen to become one of the alternative scene's most celebrated and fiercely creative exports, navigating that ascent has presented its fair share of intense challenges.
Those exact trials directly shaped their brilliant third full-length album, The Crucible Of Life. Serving as a thorough and thrilling account of what it means to pour your entire soul into a passion, experiencing every high and low in real-time, it stands as a record that required real life to be lived before it could ever exist. The album serves as a definitive chronicle of having your ambition, motivation, and creativity tested by the unpredictable ebbs and flows of everyday existence, ultimately proving what happens when you choose to harness immense pressure to craft diamonds rather than letting it crush you under its weight.
Meticulously crafted throughout the entirety of 2023, the record came together right in the middle of the most punishing touring schedule the band, completed by guitarist John Baran, drummer Daniel Matson, and bassist Ryne Olson, had ever faced. Because of this, the songs capture a real-time exploration of what it feels like to finally live out your grandest dream, only to realise it might not feel quite as fun or freeing as you initially imagined. With a brilliant sense of tongue-in-cheek irony, tracks like 'Love & Co' and 'Brag' dive into the complex feeling of falling out with the very thing you are supposed to adore unconditionally. Meanwhile, the powerful double header of 'Roommates' and 'Overtime' dissects the internal warfare between head and heart in the absolute thick of a creative maelstrom. These tracks are drenched in self-doubt, anxiety, and frustration just as much as they are fueled by admiration, gratitude, and elation, offering an incredibly raw and honest balance between loving and loathing life in the fast lane.
Musically, the record represents the most comprehensive blueprint of everything The Home Team have always aimed to embody. Seamlessly pulling as many cues from smooth-as-silk R&B as it does from rampant post-hardcore, all while threading spine-tingling soul through every single sonic twist and turn, they have forged a sound that is as entirely unique as it is undeniable. From the liquid wooziness defining 'All Squeezed Out' to the ferocious, heavy bludgeoning of 'Hell', and stretching to the pitch-perfect grooves that brilliantly bookend the record via 'Turn You Off' and 'Loud', alternative music has rarely felt this completely magnetic.
By carving out this distinct lane for themselves, the true essence of the band shines brighter than ever. Having taken the necessary time to rise through the ranks, discover their identity, and view every obstacle as a valuable lesson rather than a burden, they have unlocked exactly what it takes to be world-beaters. Crafting a collection of songs that proudly displays everything that made them fall head over heels for music throughout their lives has given them immense comfort and confidence to deploy that artistic dominance. It is a profound love that simply cannot be bought or taught, originating from deep within.
For Brian specifically, the love he holds for this band and its role in his life can be viewed through the lens of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Starting with physiological needs at the base, safety, love, belonging, and esteem stack upward toward the summit. At the very peak sits self-actualisation, the smallest tier simply because it remains the hardest state of being to achieve. While life in a touring band actively contributes to every single step of that pyramid, The Home Team as a collective entity remains the closest that Brian, Daniel, John, and Ryne have ever come to reaching that ultimate pillar. It is that true, unashamed love that has sustained them through every milestone and fork in the road, and it will undoubtedly carry them forward. Things have never felt more exhilarating or open for the band than they do right now, and The Crucible Of Life is merely the vibrant tip of a truly kaleidoscopic iceberg.
