Artist and activist Ethan Buckner (ex-The Minnesota Youngster) debuts his new undertaking with the powerfully intimate and superbly cinematic debut single “Eyes on the Prize,” an emotionally charged anthem of resilience, hope, and endurance that soars with inspiring ardour and a radiant revolutionary vitality.

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Stream: “Eyes on the Prize” – Ethan Buckner

‘Eyes on the Prize’ seeks to seize and amplify the vitality of actions for social change in an anthem for our turbulent and consequential instances.

Tright here’s a deep warmth emanating off of Ethan Buckner’s debut single: A turbulence brewing inside, born from a mixture of restlessness and frustration, nervousness and apprehension, ardour and perseverance. Scorching guitars churn from ear to ear, facet to facet as targeted drums steadily construct stress up from beneath, and within the heart lies a voice, rife with uncooked feeling, heavy and light-weight unexpectedly, able to erupt and unwilling to be silent.

Powerfully intimate and superbly cinematic, “Eyes on the Prize” is an emotionally charged anthem of resilience, hope, and endurance for all who want it: A cathartic and spirited rallying cry for change hovering with a radiant revolutionary vitality.

Awake, beneath, hole, bedsheets
Fireworks, future, gravestone, chilly ft

Maintain your eyes on
On the prize of
Maintain your head up
By no means quit
Don’t quit

Independently launched September 17, 2023, “Eyes on the Prize” is as a lot a rebirth for its creator, as it’s an inspiration for its listeners. The primary single from Los Angeles-based Ethan Buckner serves as a reintroduction to the artist and activist since he retired his former undertaking, The Minnesota Youngster, and introduced that he’ll henceforth be making music beneath his personal title.

“Hello, I’m Ethan Buckner,” a current submit on Instagram begins. “I’m an activist, songwriter, and neighborhood builder. I reside and love and harm deeply and write songs to try to make sense of it. I consider that actual connection – to our true selves, to our neighbors and communities, and to our lovely ailing planet – is the antidote to violence and despair. All through a lot of the following 12 months, I’m going to launch the physique of labor that represents the truest, rawest, most intimate components of myself.”

Typically in comparison with heartland Americana and folk-pop artists, The Minnesota Youngster’s music – a few of which was beforehand featured and premiered on Atwood Journal – had a candy, seductive heat that continues to permeate Buckner’s new materials – though there’s definitely some added dynamic oomph behind “Eyes on the Prize” because of the monitor’s fiery electrical guitars and the presence of ambient, background synth pads.

For Buckner, a longtime activist who…

• was as soon as accused of being an American spy and detained by the Egyptian army;
• repelled off an enormous freeway bridge protesting massive oil;
• chained himself to the Oakland police division headquarters;

“Eyes on the Prize” represents a tipping level, the place every little thing he’s feeling inside rises excessive previous the boiling level and spills out in a dizzy, dramatic fury:

Freedom, phantasm, chain gang, excessive strung
Divide, conquer, overlook, bear in mind

Maintain your eyes on
On the prize of
Maintain your head up
By no means quit
Don’t quit

“As choppers whirred over Los Angeles within the wake of George Floyd’s homicide in 2020, I may really feel the heartbeat of anger at injustice boiling over within the streets exterior my window in Venice as I wrote ‘Eyes on the Prize.’ The uprisings evoked age-old indignation, too acquainted grief, and but there was additionally a hopeful vitality, that one thing had lastly clicked, and alter was inside our collective grasp,” Buckner tells Atwood Journal. “‘Eyes on the Prize,’ with its lyrical homage to Alice Wine’s 1956 civil rights hymn, seeks to seize and amplify that revolutionary vitality in an indie folks/pop anthem for our turbulent and consequential instances.”

“This track is extremely significant to me, and in lots of respects represents my shift from The Minnesota Youngster to Ethan Buckner. For greater than 15 years, my profession as a songwriter and my profession within the local weather justice motion have typically felt separate. I don’t write many overtly political songs; songwriting for me has largely been the car by way of which I can filter and course of the huge vary of emotion that dwelling the life I’ve chosen to reside brings me. I’ve all the time stated that my music is much less of what you’d hear at a rally, however extra so what you would possibly hearken to to search out solace, inspiration, connection, and hope on the best way residence. ‘Eyes on the Prize’ is a little bit of an exception to that rule, and I’m honored to have the chance for the largest efficiency of my profession to happen on the greatest local weather protest I’ve ever organized.”

“Lyrically, ‘Eyes on the Prize’ is true to kind for me – by way of mini-vignettes within the verses, I search to translate and amplify the immense turbulence, indignation, connectedness, and sense of energy intrinsic to watershed social motion moments. I distinction the fervent motion within the verses with a burst of vitality, reminding myself and listeners that we’re all on this collectively, that we’re going to lose typically, however now we have our eyes on the prize of justice and can hold going.”

“Eyes on the Prize” is simply the beginning for Buckner, who plans to launch songs off his upcoming debut album one-by-one over the approaching months.

“The songs on my forthcoming file – my first full-length – are going to return out one after the other, as a result of every bit is a narrative I need to inform, weaving my deepest struggles and dearest hopes into anthems which can be each intricately private and unavoidable collective,” he shares. “I’ve by no means poured this a lot of myself into creating one thing, and so it felt like the appropriate time to personal this work as me.”

Buckner’s debut album, Treading Water, will launch in early 2024. The file was written and recorded by Buckner, produced by Grammy Award nominee Justin Glasco (Paris Paloma, The Lone Bellow), and options guitarist Brandon Walters (Lord Huron), vocalist and synth/keyboardist Debbie Neigher (Marina, Suki Waterhouse) and Buckner’s brother, drummer Matt Buckner (Frost College of Music).

Erupt, disrupt, parade, fever
Make love, ablaze, dive in, half waves
Anger, righteous gas, convey hope, from reality

Maintain your eyes on
On the prize of
Maintain your head up
By no means quit
Don’t quit

Stream “Eyes on the Prize” completely on Atwood Journal and keep tuned for extra to return from Ethan Buckner as he continues to pour his coronary heart out in track, delivering music that hits exhausting and is certain to go away a long-lasting mark on all who pay attention.

Maintain your eyes on
On the prize of
Maintain your head up
By no means quit

Maintain your eyes on
On the prize of
Maintain your head up
By no means quit
Don’t quit

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