Following a yearslong hiatus, which was partially due to the lead singer’s life-threatening medical diagnosis, alt-rockers The Calling are back with a new album and a record release show in Malibu. And for the band’s co-founder, the new music is considered a comeback record as well as a continuation of where The Calling left off before the lengthy hiatus.
“It is a comeback because obviously for me I didn’t even know I would be alive or able to do this now,” said Alex Band, The Calling’s co-founder and lead singer. “It’s the story of my life. It’s an incredibly emotional record and the fact that it’s coming out is a dream of mine that I didn’t think would ever happen,” he said.
The new album, “Before The World Turns to Dust,” which is The Calling’s third studio album, is set to be released Sept. 25 and the band will mark the occasion with a show at Dreamland, an intimate live music venue in Malibu. It’s the first full-length album since 2004’s “Two,” coming 25 years after the group’s 2001 platinum-selling debut, “Camino Palmero.”
The new 15-track pop-rock record features the band’s familiar soaring melodies and anthemic uplifting rock-pop songs.
“Sonically it’s going to feel very comfortable for people who know The Calling stuff. I fought really hard to keep it sounding like that so this record sounds like what the third The Calling record would be,” Band said.
Music comes calling
Formed in 1996 in Los Angeles, The Calling found massive worldwide success with the anthemic hit “Wherever You Will Go,” from the debut album “Camino Palmero.”
Written by Band when he was 15 years old, the breakout hit reached the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, spent 23 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart, was named Billboard’s No. 1 Adult Pop Song of the Decade, and has surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify.
“It was so overwhelming, all of that happening. I don’t think I was thinking about anything but to make it to the next day,” Band said. “But it was amazing once everything started blowing up. Nobody thought that song was going to do very well. It was all a surprise and once it became a hit I had no idea it would continue to be such an important song,” he added.
The Calling’s second studio album didn’t have the same impact as its debut offering, although it did include the hit “Our Lives,” which was included in the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Olympics and was the opening song for the 2006 Academy Awards.
But the musicians faced some serious challenges thanks to label and industry complications that halted their rise. Band eventually released a solo album in 2010, but not long after that he received a devastating Parkinson’s diagnosis and spent the next seven years struggling to regain his motor skills. He had to use a wheelchair to get around for about eight months, the lead singer recalled.
“That ended everything basically. That was the end of it all,” Band said.
But in 2018 his condition started to dramatically improve and in hindsight Band thinks he may have been misdiagnosed. Regardless, his health improvement allowed him to turn his attention back to The Calling.
“It was basically a new lease on life. I was kind given a go pass again to finally get back to making music. I’ve been wanting to put this record out for 20 years,” he said.
For tickets to the record release party, go to thecallingmusic.com