A child of the 90s, Nashville based artist, Mick Fury was getting kind of tired of hearing his generation dragged by the media, talk show hosts and newspaper stories and that’s when the idea for this new album, 1981-1996 started brewing. Born in Syracuse, New York, Fury has grown into his musical self through spending his formative years in Hollywood, returning home to New York, and playing in hard rock band, Silent Fury, plus writing soundtrack music. As a singer-songwriter now based in Nashville, he’s found himself opening for country acts and rock bands alike. Of his musical upbringing, Fury says: “It's funny how we are the inevitable product of all our choices. My experiences in LA, New York and Nashville couldn't just be dusted off, they'd become affixed to who I was as a musician.” Speaking about the new album, Fury added that it’s, “a natural evolution of my entire career. I began as an acoustic guitar player without a clue, grew into an angry hard rock singer, morphed again into a Nashville country singer-songwriter, and now I'm on the other side of life as an ornery, thoughtful, hungry, rock singer-songwriter.”
He's not holding back on this release, his impassioned vocals on the song, “State of the Union” chronicle the vanishing of the American Dream under the weight of student loans, financial crises, etc. Fury explains: “As I went through school all my friends had the same idea, but along the way the American Dream got stolen out from under our pillow. It was there one minute, and the next time we checked it was buried beneath $100,000 in student loans, tied up behind needing a Masters degree to get an entry level job…”
The album’s first single, “Can’t Let Go” is about perseverance and wonders what compels people to keep fighting. Fury lamented: “All I ever hear is how we're lazy, we get participation trophies, and we can't afford houses because we eat too much avocado toast,” he says. “We're the most open-minded, hard-working-for-beans, thoughtful generation yet, and we've watched the American Dream be snatched away from us like bullies taking a kid's lunch money. “
While he was plotting what became 1981-1996, Fury was busy working on the 2022 Cole Hauser-led feature film Panama, as the songwriter and musical composer for the project. His previous band, Silent Fury had a song called “Exit Wounds” in Kate Beckinsale's Underworld movie franchise. 1981-1996 is a ten-track collection, including one cover, a buoyant take on the 4 Non Blondes song, “What’s Up”, while still staying true to the original. It was released last week.
Mick Fury brings his band to Analog at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville for his release show tonight. I recently played “State of the Union” on The Local Brew Hour and you can expect to hear more tracks from this album on the show. It airs Sundays at 8am and Mondays at 7pm. It’s also on demand here at wmot.org and with the WMOT app.
"State of the Union"
“Can’t Let Go”
“What’s Up”
