Why the Music of Blue Wave Revival Is Changing.
I want to talk to you personally about a change you may already be hearing in the music of Blue Wave Revival. For a long time, many of our songs were political. They came from things I was angry about, worried about, or believed needed to be said. I don't regret writing those songs. They represented what I was feeling at the time. But something has changed in me. Maybe it didn't happen all at once. Maybe it has been happening for a long time and I just finally started listening to it.
I'm a U.S. Army veteran. I served two tours in Vietnam, and more than five decades later, parts of that experience are still with me. Some of them always will be. I've lived with the nightmares, PTSD, and depression. I know what it's like to carry something inside that the person standing next to you may never see. And I know I'm far from the only veteran carrying it.
That made me start asking myself a pretty simple question: What do I want our music to accomplish? Do I want to write another song that makes people who already agree with me nod their heads, or can we make music that reaches a veteran sitting alone at two o'clock in the morning who needs to hear that somebody understands? That question hit me hard.
That's why you're going to hear a different Blue Wave Revival. We're going to tell more stories about veterans, military service, PTSD, depression, families, sacrifice, brotherhood and sisterhood, coming home, and the invisible battles that can continue long after the uniform is put away. But not every song will be about the military. Veterans have lives beyond our service. We fall in love, raise families, laugh, screw things up, grow older, lose people, remember being young, and sometimes simply wake up grateful that we made it through another difficult night. Those stories deserve songs too.
You're also going to hear less music telling Americans which political side they're supposed to be on. That doesn't mean I've stopped caring about our country. Quite the opposite. My military service taught me that the person standing beside you doesn't have to look like you, believe everything you believe, or vote the way you vote for you to stand beside one another. When we served, we learned to watch each other's backs. I think America could use a little more of that again.
This new direction is also closely connected to The War Followed Me Home Initiative. I want our music to do more than entertain. If one song reaches a struggling veteran, starts a conversation about PTSD or depression, helps a family understand what their veteran may be carrying, or simply makes somebody feel less alone, then we've accomplished something worthwhile.
At this point in my life, I want the music I leave behind to mean something. I want a veteran somewhere to hear one of our songs and think, “Somebody gets it. Somebody remembers us. I'm not standing watch alone.”
I'd like to personally invite you to visit bluewaverevivalband.com and get a taste of the new Blue Wave Revival. Listen to the songs, read the stories behind them, and share something with a veteran, military family, friend, or anyone who might need the message. As always, our music is free to listen to, download, and share. We're not asking you to buy anything. We're simply asking you to listen.
This is where Blue Wave Revival is headed now: Music With a Message. Music about veterans. Music about life. Music about the battles people see and the ones they don't. And most of all, music that reminds people they don't have to face those battles alone.
Thank you for listening, and thank you for walking this new road with us.
— Rick Gaspa
Blue Wave Revival
Founder, The War Followed Me Home Initiative
https://bluewaverevivalband.com/single/201359/it-s-a-crime
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