Singled Out: Canedy's Warrior

Canedy just released their new album "Warrior" and to celebrate we asked lead singer Mike Santarsiero to tell us about the title track. Here is the story:

Charlie, Tony, and I had not written or performed together as a group since 1996. When we decided to get back together again in 2014, eighteen years later, to record a new album, I was so excited about the project that I couldn't wait to start writing.

"Warrior" was the first song that popped into my head. [It literally did exactly that. I had a hard time typing out the lyrics fast enough because they seemed to be writing themselves (that, and the fact that I am also a terrible typist). Tony convinced me to pare it down, because it was going on forever. There was so much to say after my eighteen year odyssey.]

"Warrior" is an autobiographical allegory. It tells how the members of the band were my brothers; how I lost faith in what we were doing, after the whole music scene changed with the arrival of "grunge," and we had suddenly become obsolete; how I left the group and they continued on without me, while i became angry and depressed and wouldn't even listen to the radio; how I decided that rock and roll owed me something for all the time and energy I had invested, so I sold my services to a string of popular cover bands that played all over the Northeast U.S. and made a fair amount of money doing it (I guess I felt I was getting even); how the calling to write more original rock was never far off, and when Charlie told me how our CDs were becoming collectors items, particularly in Europe, i was convinced that our type of music could garner a following and that we should heed the call. That's the song.

We hooked up with drummer Carl Canedy of The Rods, booked a local studio called The Rec Room, in Scranton, PA and hammered the songs out live, one piece at a time until we could play them all start to finish, and then took them home to Charlie's and Carl's home studios where we laid down the tracks. After we fought, argued, and horse traded, Charlie sent them off to Carl's friend Chris Collier who mixed them into a cohesive sounding album. In the interim, we played them live for the first time at a large outdoor festival, in Binghamton, NY. Singing "Warrior" live at a venue that size was awesome. I felt like Homer relaying an epic tale to the eager masses. It was very well received. There's a video on-line somewhere. My favorite comment from the evening was, "Holy sh*t! Who are these guys and why aren't they famous yet?"

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more about the album here

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