Trip Manor’s Nathan Towles and Cole Younger unpack their tender, charming, and deeply intimate ‘Again to City’ EP, a heat and wistful assortment that captures life’s quiet transformations with grace and honesty. From fatherhood and nervousness to nostalgia and the ache of rising older, the Virginia indie rock duo mirror on six private landmarks in a transferring meditation on change, presence, and connection.
Stream: “Casio Treatment” – Trip Manor
I’m not going wherever straightforward… when the one coronary heart you’ve acquired takes a beating, I’ll be right here ‘til the injury is finished.
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It’s a quiet promise, tucked contained in the light chorus of “Injury Is Executed,” nevertheless it carries the load of your entire file. Trip Manor’s new EP Again to City isn’t only a reflection on rising up – it’s a love letter to the current second, and a meditation on what it means to remain grounded via life’s fast-moving seasons. From sleepless nights and intrusive ideas to outdated haunts and first steps, these songs discover magnificence in stillness, ache in movement, and that means within the on a regular basis. Again to City is Trip Manor at their most weak and warranted – a heat, wistful, and deeply human portrait of change, connection, and acceptance.
Excessive rise takes up the outdated parking zone
Concrete cowl like one thing
I’d forgotten to say to you
earlier than you took off
A fast drive by the outdated blue home
Keep in mind each good friend
passing out on the sofa
But I can’t say that I would like it again once more
Nonetheless it’s bittersweet
However if you happen to search for me
I’ve been hiding out
once I come again to city
Don’t know the place you’re hanging out
My ears to not the bottom
– “Again to City,” Trip Manor
Launched Might 16th through Nettwerk Music Group, Again to City arrives because the long-awaited follow-up to Trip Manor’s 2021 self-titled debut. Written and recorded over the course of two years within the duo’s Virginia dwelling studio, the EP marks a significant milestone for Nathan Towles (guitar, vocals) and Cole Younger (drums), who lately celebrated ten years as a band, navigated fatherhood, marriage, and the gradual transformation of maturity. Profoundly intimate and intentional, these six songs function totally different landmarks in Towles and Younger’s shared and particular person experiences – moments of change, readability, and emotional depth – charting a brand new chapter in Trip Manor’s evolution whereas staying true to the heat and melodic ease which have at all times outlined them.
“This file was a method of orienting ourselves to the season of life we’re in,” Nathan Towles tells Atwood Journal. “Since our final file Cole has gotten married, I grew to become a father and lately turned 30, and we celebrated 10 years as a band. As somebody who might be very sentimental and nostalgic, I feel this file highlights the battle to let go of what was and look optimistically in the direction of the longer term.”
“It’s been actually particular to face again for a second and understand how a lot this band has been a catalyst for thus many shut friendships and broader group,” Cole Younger provides.
That push-and-pull between previous and future formed each a part of the method. “Sonically I feel we needed to good and develop what we’ve at all times liked about our sound whereas incorporating the sounds which have impressed us these previous few years – a couple of of these being Oasis, The Sundays, or The Treatment,” they clarify. That evolution got here with loads of exploration: “There have been so many songs written for this file as we tried to determine its identification,” they proceed.
“A number of songs we actually liked didn’t make it on right here however felt like they match collectively in their very own class. I feel we might have written a part of our subsequent file whereas looking for this one.”
Fittingly, the file opens with “January (Over & Over),” an enthralling, churning pop-rock reverie born from burnout and self-doubt that finally sparked your entire EP into movement. The come-up from the comedown, it’s a dreamy, dramatic outpouring of catchy and cathartic sound right here to remind us that we’re not alone in our distress. “There was a second a couple of years in the past at a New 12 months’s occasion the place I overheard all of those conversations individuals have been having about their objectives and resolutions for the yr,” Towles recollects. “As I listened, it highlighted my very own fatigue and burnout in that season and I began panicking a bit bit, feeling like I had misplaced some drive. Oddly sufficient, that second of recognizing my very own lack of inspiration impressed the thought for this music.”
Propelled by heat harmonics and a gliding groove, the observe – featured on Atwood Journal’s 109th Editor’s Picks – turns inertia into motion, capturing the desperation of feeling caught, and the small, important shift that occurs while you lastly title it out loud. “It began messing along with your head, now January’s acquired you standing on the edge,” the band sing, a line that feels just like the music’s thesis: A cry for movement when all the things feels paralyzed.
If “January (Over & Over)” is the EP’s spark, “You, Within the Afternoon” is its sunlit heart – a young reflection on fatherhood, presence, and fleeting pleasure. Written throughout Nathan Towles’ first months as a brand new dad or mum, the music captures the heat of a quiet spring second and the aching consciousness that point is transferring too quick. “After getting via a couple of sleepless months of getting a new child, I used to be actually loving the season of life my household was in, and springtime grew to become a form of metaphor for wanting to remain in a gorgeous second that you already know is altering and evolving so rapidly,” he explains.
Set in opposition to breezy melodies and mild rhythms, the observe seems like a gradual inhale – a reminder to remain grounded in what’s good, even because it slips quietly via your palms. “I don’t know the ending, however I hope it’s kinda like proper now,” Towles sings – not a decision, however a want to maintain nonetheless, and take your life in, even because it passes you by.
Wakened this morning
Heard the birds within the timber
Solar via the leaves
One thing about this scene
And your daffodil smile
I haven’t seen shortly
Possibly it’s a protracted shot
Possibly I ought to know by now
Issues at all times change
Thought concerning the ending
However I don’t must know proper now
With you, within the afternoon
That craving for stillness inside change comes into sharper deal with the EP’s title observe, “Again to City.” Co-written with longtime good friend and collaborator Trent Dabbs, the music paints a vivid portrait of emotional return: To a metropolis, to a season, to a model of your self it’s possible you’ll not acknowledge anymore. “I had lived [in Nashville] a couple of years earlier than, and being again jogged my memory how a lot had modified since then,” Towles shares. “I like that the music isn’t one-dimensional – it’s nostalgia blended with remorse, damaged friendships, and a collage of your favourite recollections unexpectedly.”
With mushy guitar strums and a head-nodding groove, “Again To City” is as introspective as it’s melodic – a snapshot of motion, dislocation, and reckoning. “Sonically, I feel it ties collectively the sound of the previous couple of information in a method that was recent and thrilling to us,” the band clarify. “Lyrically, it’s the primary music within the narrative timeline that these songs hint.”
That ache we hear in “Again to City” involves a head on “Injury Is Executed,” a soft-spoken, slow-burning ballad about displaying up via the worst of it. Framed by delicate acoustic guitar and a heat, intimate vocal supply, the music is as a lot a love letter as it’s a vow – written in response to Towles’ spouse’s nervousness and his personal battle to know what to say. “Too usually my response could be a well-intentioned however empty ‘it’s gonna be okay,’” he shares.
“Sooner or later Trent Dabbs and I have been writing collectively and the road ‘I’ll be right here ‘til the injury is finished’ got here up. We utterly deserted no matter music we have been engaged on for it, and I’m so glad we did.” That phrase grew to become the center of the music, a lyrical chorus that holds all the things collectively: “When the one coronary heart you’ve acquired takes a beating, I’ll be right here ‘til the injury is finished.” “For my part, it’s our greatest music so far lyrically talking,” Towles provides. “It actually sums up how I need to reply when somebody presents their worries and fears.”
So, right here we’re once more
Gazing a ceiling fan
You pull the sheets, ask if I’m awake
You recognize that I’m
This night time is stuffed with loaded questions
You don’t wanna hear what I say
I assume the higher aspect of me
is the one which acquired away
Properly, I’m not going wherever straightforward
I’ll be right here burning out with the solar
Don’t even hassle with the difficulty, child
Simply know that hassle’s at all times gonna come
When all the things round you is leaving
And all of the fears are operating without delay
When the one coronary heart you’ve acquired takes a beating,
I’ll be right here ‘til the injury is finished
“Casio Treatment” captures the stressed vitality of adolescence with a mixture of punchy rhythms, nostalgic haze, and lyrical snapshots pulled straight from reminiscence. It’s a music about that exact model of youthful aimlessness – when something feels attainable, however nothing feels clear. “There’s a novel unhappiness to that age when you could have seemingly limitless potential, a lot freedom, and but don’t know the place to go in life,” Towles displays.
Co-written with longtime good friend Nick Purvis, the observe channels that angst via gritty textures and a vivid lyrical collage: “Father John and empty pockets / Residing on an empty promise / Shopping for into each fleeting line.” As a lot because it aches, “Casio Treatment” additionally pulses with motion – a reminder that even uncertainty might be cinematic while you’re younger and all the things issues.
Father John and empty pockets
Residing on and empty promise
Shopping for into each fleeting line
Reduce ties with all of your finest mates
You fell in love final weekend
They might by no means stand to see you smile
Properly, everybody simply has the identical outdated treatment
By no means asking twice or needing extra
It’s been a very long time since
tomorrow caught your eye
Possibly the world went on and handed you by
And everybody’s acquired one thing you possibly can’t discover
It’s been a protracted day within the
corners of your thoughts
But it surely’s fantastic
– “Casio Treatment,” Trip Manor
The EP closes tenderly with “When It’s All Over,” a hushed, emotionally resonant meditation on parenthood, presence, and the passage of time – and maybe the sweetest lullaby of the band’s ten-year profession. Written throughout a quiet morning with guitar in hand, Towles discovered the fitting canvas to course of the fatigue and wonder of latest fatherhood. “It’s so tempting to take a look at and fail to be current within the lovely, but exhausting journey that’s parenthood,” he shares. “This music was a strategy to give myself perspective via honesty.” With its light piano and shimmering guitar traces, the observe seems like a protracted exhale – not a solution, however a promise to maintain displaying up. “Then I’ll play all of it again once more / Wishing I may return then / And keep some time.”
Once I begin leaning on tomorrow
I overlook you right here immediately
On and on our season passes
And it’s beginning to slowly fade
Now, I’m taking part in it out in my thoughts
Dreaming concerning the daythat we get up
When it’s throughout
Then I’ll play all of it again once more
Wishing I may return then
And keep some time
When it’s throughout, when it’s throughout
Again to City could also be one in every of Trip Manor’s shortest initiatives so far, nevertheless it’s additionally their most intimate, and emotionally expansive.
Throughout six quietly highly effective songs, the duo handle to distill a decade of progress – as artists, companions, mates, and now mother and father – right into a single, cohesive assortment. It’s a file that meets change with readability, and provides presence as a sort of resistance. If the center of Again to City could possibly be distilled right into a single phrase, it could be the one Trip Manor selected themselves: Accepting the current.
“I hope it’s trustworthy sufficient to fulfill listeners within the concern of change, and hopeful sufficient to alleviate a few of that concern,” they share.
As a result of finally, Again To City isn’t nearly going dwelling; it’s about turning into one.
Expertise the complete file through our under stream, and dive deeper into the center of Trip Manor’s Again to City EP with Atwood Journal as Nathan Towles and Cole Younger take us track-by-track via the music and lyrics of their newest launch!
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Stream: ‘Again to City’ – Trip Manor
:: Inside Again to City ::
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January (Over & Over)
There was a second a couple of years in the past at a New 12 months’s occasion the place I overheard all of those conversations individuals have been having about their objectives and resolutions for the yr. As I listened, it highlighted my very own fatigue and burnout in that season and I began panicking a bit bit, feeling like I had misplaced some drive. Oddly sufficient, that second of recognizing my very own lack of inspiration impressed the thought for this music and is a part of the explanation this EP began getting off the bottom. I’d been singing the primary line of this music for a couple of years till sooner or later I introduced the thought to our good friend Jason Boesel, with whom we ended up ending the music.
You, In The Afternoon
This music got here collectively in my first few months as a brand new father. After getting via a couple of sleepless months of getting a new child, I used to be actually loving the season of life my household was in an springtime grew to become a form of metaphor for wanting to remain in a gorgeous second that you already know is altering and evolving so rapidly. It’s a reminder to understand the second and be optimistic concerning the future. The imagery within the music describes a scene that’s virtually too easy to be true and is my method of wrestling with the way to be current in a second like that.
Again to City
“Again to City” is about that feeling you get while you return to a spot you don’t really feel such as you belong anymore. Possibly it’s due to unhealthy recollections or possibly it’s simply since you’re out of contact and the place has moved on with out you. It’s not the best way I get up feeling each day, nevertheless it occurs usually sufficient that I get a tinge of that feeling and I really like the specificity of that. I wrote this music with Trent Dabbs whereas I used to be on a writing journey in Nashville. I had lived there a couple of years earlier than and being again jogged my memory how a lot had modified since then. I like that the music isn’t one-dimensional – it’s nostalgia blended with remorse, damaged friendships, and a collage of your favourite recollections unexpectedly.
Injury Is Executed
My spouse went via a very anxious season a couple of years in the past and I didn’t at all times know what to say when she would inform me an intrusive thought or when some worst-case-scenario would come out of her mouth. Typically if she’s feeling fearful or anxious about one thing, it doesn’t come up till we’re mendacity in mattress speaking as we go to sleep. Too usually my response could be a well-intentioned however empty… it’s straightforward to need to say “all the things goes to be okay,” however we don’t at all times know that. This music was a method of claiming “even when the worst factor you possibly can consider occurs, I’m not going wherever.” Sooner or later Trent Dabbs and I have been writing collectively and the road “I’ll be right here ’til the injury is finished” got here up. We utterly deserted no matter music we have been engaged on for it and I’m so glad we did.
Casio Treatment
This music has this coming-of-age feeling to it, so we tried to let the lyrics match that. We should have written lyrics for this music 5 totally different instances till discovering the set that matches the music. For a couple of years, this concept was a lyric much less demo that was caught in our heads. It’s actually only a montage of a few of my very own recollections and a few naïve ideas as an adolescent and early twenty-something. The music’s co-writer, Nick Purvis, has been a good friend of mine since early highschool and all of us agreed there was this sort of angst to the music so we tried to put in writing into that to make it about our shared aimlessness in our teen years. There’s a novel unhappiness to that age when you could have seemingly limitless potential, a lot freedom, and but don’t know the place to go in life.
When It’s All Over
Final yr my spouse and I grew to become mother and father. One morning I used to be sitting on the kitchen desk strumming the guitar and these chords struck me. They felt like the fitting canvas to wrestle via the strain of being a brand new dad or mum. It’s so tempting to take a look at and fail to be current within the lovely, but exhausting journey that’s parenthood. This music was a strategy to give myself perspective via honesty. I consider this music as a counterpart to “You, Within the Afternoon.” They really feel like they each hit on this want to be current in a fast-paced season of life, however from totally different views. I really like the sense of tiredness you possibly can really feel on the recording but in addition the tinge of hopefulness that I hope comes via to listeners. This felt like the proper nearer to the file.
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