(PR) On August 12, 2008, Karma Frog Records will release Adam Marsland's "Daylight Kissing Night: Adam Marsland's Greatest Hits", a 20-track collection of songs spanning both Cockeyed Ghost and Marsland's solo songs. "I wanted to present my songs in the most undeniable way I could. I've had this weird journey from punk guy to indie guy to pop guy to this kind of elder statesman do-it-all person who's rooted in a classic sound. Every one of my albums was different. So if someone said to me 'what do you do?' I didn't have an easy answer for them," comments Marsland on why he decided to do "Daylight Kissing Night". "Now, there's this record with twenty of my best songs, and it covers everything I've done without sounding inconsistent, and people can come away from it understanding who I am and what I do."
Marsland cut his teeth touring with pop/rock band Cockeyed Ghost, who between 1996 and 2001 released five records (four studio records and a rarities collection), and in 2001, after disbanding Cockeyed Ghost, Marsland hit the road and began touring heavily as a solo act, culminating in the release of his debut solo album, 2002's live record, "232 Days on the Road".
From there until 2004, when he gave up being a full-time musician and took a desk job for a law firm, Marsland spent countless months on the road. "Music had completely consumed my life for nearly ten years, and I was tired of being on the road all the time and tired of being poor. I wanted to see what a normal life was like for a while," reminisces Marsland. "But I still was playing all the time, I just stopped writing. I mostly focused on arranging and singing."
But, you can't keep a career musician off the road for too long, and Marsland soon realized this. "I was working full-time, and playing, and then I was battling these other health problems and it all got to be too much. I felt like I never got a break and I never got to feel one-hundred percent," recalls Marsland. "I realized that when I was on the road playing every night and drinking 'til 3a.m. I was actually a lot healthier than holding down a day job.
"I also realized it was getting to the point where I had to decide whether my adventures were over or not, because I'm getting older and if I was going to do more with music, I had to do it now. And I felt that I was at the peak of my powers as a musician and singer, and I wanted to get back to it."
Back at his peak indeed, "Daylight Kissing Night" proves Marsland has a knack with poignant lyrics and melodic, sustainable hooks. It helps re-establish him as one of the D.I.Y. community's shining pop songwriters.
"The record is about melody, emotional honesty, and intelligence, I hope," he says, glowing like a proud new father. "I think the newly recorded songs are the best production-wise that I've ever done, particularly 'At the Bookstore,' which is probably the best vocal I've ever done, and the best keyboard track. And, sonically, the album sounds phenomenal. Earle Mankey did an unbelievable job on the mastering. It comes up on my iPod and it just goes pow! compared to whatever came before it."
