Punk Heroes Bridge The Gap Returning this Spring with Powerful New LP Gainsayer - New Single "In The Throes" Now Streaming

Punk Heroes  Bridge The Gap  Returning this Spring with Powerful New LP Gainsayer 
 
Produced by Bill Stevenson and Mixed/Mastered by Jason Livermore 
 
New Single + Video "In The Throes" Now Streaming

After arriving on the melodic punk scene seemingly out of nowhere in 2023, Salt Lake City, Utah's Bridge The Gap is back, with the announcement of their upcoming sophomore full-length, Gainsayer, their highly anticipated follow-up to Secret Kombinations.

Recorded at the renowned Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, and produced by punk rock legend Bill Stevenson (Descendents, Black Flag), with mixing and mastering by Grammy Award winner Jason Livermore (Rise Against, Hot Water Music), Gainsayer is a thrilling new chapter in the band's sonic evolution. 

Building on the raw energy and experience from their first collaboration with Stevenson and Livermore, Bridge The Gap delivers 14 fresh tracks that showcase their growth as a band, combining killer riffs, powerful drumming, and an unshakeable foundation of catchy, melodic vocals. Set for release in Spring 2025 via Double Helix Records, SBAM Records, and Pee Records, Gainsayer signals that Bridge The Gap is here to stay.

The album's first single "In The Throes" is now streaming everywhere. Stream the track HERE.

Watch the music video HERE.

The band says, ""In The Throes" deals with the topic of battling inner demons and searching deep to find the resolve to overcome them. Hopefully, the song is relatable and inspires some hope, not only that there are literally millions of people going through such struggles but also that there might be a way through without succumbing to the worst of it. We chose In The Throes to be our first single because it’s an accurate snapshot of what fans and listeners can expect to hear from Gainsayer as a 14-song album. This was our second time working with Bill and our friends at the Blasting Room, and they really turned it on for us with Gainsayer. We spent a lot of time with Bill getting the vocal ideas for "In The Throes" ironed out and tracked, and we’re stoked with how it all shook out."

The band adds, "In the video, we’re not depicted with our figurative knives out, battling demons. Rather, the "In The Throes" video was meant to show our fans that we’ve been ‘in the throes’ of making this music together for decades now, working out our artistic impulses and creativity dating back to the late ‘90s. It’s a kind of then-and-now showcase of where we started as a band and where we are today. Our buddy Alaric from Gearly Beloved Productions helped us make this video, shooting the band performing the song live at a show we played with Chaser in Salt Lake City, juxtaposed with a host of old VHS clips we had digitized from the ‘90s and ‘00s. This was the third time we’ve worked with Alaric on a music video and it was a blast, as always."

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Bridge The Gap was so creatively inspired by their experience recording 2023’s Secret Kombinations with Stevenson and Livermore at The Blasting Room–which captured punk rock lightning in a bottle and resulted in a debut album that organically received universally positive reviews from the punk rock press and community with no official PR launch – they wanted to return to Ft. Collins, CO as soon as possible to record 14 fresh songs. The result of their second experience with Stevenson and Livermore is Gainsayer, which hits with power on a slightly deeper level than Secret Kombinations and never lets up.

With Gainsayer, Bridge The Gap is screaming that they’re here to stay, but it’s helpful to trace the band’s roots back to the beginning to fully appreciate their decades-long punk rock journey.

Bridge The Gap is a group of friends who’ve been making music together since the 1990s. After putting their instruments down for a time to start families and pursue careers outside of music, the guys rekindled their connections around 2020. Vocalist/guitarist Chad Jensen went on a demoing binge with songs he’d been stockpiling during the intervening years, and when the other band members–Bassist/vocalist Shon Foster and drummer/vocalist Ryan Thompson –heard them, everyone was inspired to start something anew. Only this time, they opted for afresh start with a new band name, even though, musically, the tunes were in the same sonic ballpark as their stuff from the ‘90s and ‘00s. Thus, Bridge The Gap was born.

Bridge The Gap hatched a plan to record a 14-song collection of these demos at The Blasting Room. They then reached out to Stevenson to see if he’d be on board to produce. He was, so from there the band found itself in Ft. Collins, Colorado recording music with the legendary Stevenson at his also legendary studio The Blasting Room. Bridge The Gap definitely had to “shake off some rust and step it up at The Blasting Room” to quote Jensen, which was a much-needed crash course on what the standard is for making a Stevenson-produced record. What emerged was their debut full-length album,Secret Kombinations.

Secret Kombinations is sonically rich and Bridge The Gap is proud of their debut album. While the album doesn’t exactly capture the band rushing things, it’s quite raw in its presentation of the songs because the guys really had to dive in head-first with deadlines and get acclimated to the rigors of working with a Hall-of-Fame producer like Stevenson and his crew of top-shelf engineers.

“There isn’t enough space here to share all of the knowledge and insights Bridge The Gap learned from Bill,” said Jensen. “He’s not only a legendary drummer and producer, but he’s one of the kindest, most conscientious humans walking the planet, and he might be the most patient dude living, too. Bill has also assembled a ridiculously talented and outgoing crew at the Blasting Room. That studio has some serious muscle. And being able to work with a Grammy winner like Jason Livermore to mix and master the albums has been a tremendous honor. Jason is also in the Hall of Fame, and he’s either engineered and/or mixed and mastered most of Bridge The Gap’s favorite albums dating back to the ‘90s."

With the experience of making Secret Kombinations fresh in mind, when Bridge The Gap returned to The Blasting Room to work with Stevenson and Livermore about 20 months later to record Gainsayer, it was a whole different ballgame. As a band, the guys were now much more weathered and cohesive, and they had spent a lot of time in pre-production selecting the songs that would be on the record and spending time crafting the arrangements and vocal melodies.“

On Gainsayer, Bridge The Gap specifically chose a 14-song collection that best featured some compelling melodic roots vocally,” explained Jensen. “The priority was solid, catchy melodies, and then the band built on it from there. Make no mistake, Gainsayer features plenty of killer riffs, melodic, ripping solos, powerful, nuanced drumming, and bass lines galore. But the foundation of this record is the strength of the vocal melodies and the songs themselves. As a band, Bridge The Gap came out of its second trip to the Blasting Room flying high and chomping at the bit to share Gainsayer with the world.”

Now, having locked in the support of Double Helix Records (USA), SBAM Records (EU), and Pee Records (Australia/New Zealand/Japan) and a Spring 2025 release date for Gainsayer, Bridge The Gap is ready to do just that.

Music Video: https://youtu.be/Vuj_DS_ZMU8