For over 25 years, New Found Glory have remained one of the crucial celebrated fashionable pop-punk acts, due to their relatable lyrics, infectious hooks and resilient nature. However, if resilience was ever wanted, it was undoubtedly in December of 2021, when guitarist and chief songwriter Chad Gilbert almost misplaced his life. He was discovered unresponsive in mattress by his spouse, who shortly carried out mouth-to-mouth resuscitation whereas ready for paramedics to reach. Shortly after, Gilbert was admitted to the ICU, the place it was found that he had a sizeable tumor resulting from pheochromocytoma, a uncommon most cancers of the adrenal gland. From that second on, Gilbert’s journey to restoration was lengthy and attempting, consisting of a number of surgical procedures, chemotherapy and the general emotional curler coaster of dwelling with such a severe sickness.
Even via the darkness, uncertainty and comprehensible concern, Gilbert knew that he wanted to overcome the illness and wasn’t going to let it outline him or take away his pleasure. Of course, Gilbert’s biggest joys lie inside his household, together with his loving spouse and daughter, who was born simply months earlier than his most cancers analysis. However, he additionally knew that he wanted to show to his biggest ardour: music. With gorgeous bravery, Gilbert carried on with enterprise as ordinary, albeit in a barely completely different capability, to start the writing course of for New Found Glory’s largely acoustic and most mature, susceptible album but, Make The Most Of it.
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Gilbert had greater than sufficient severe subject material to tug from however was admittedly not sure if he wished his most cancers story to be entrance and heart on the discharge. “There’s a thing that happens sometimes with charities and promotions that feel self-serving or cheap marketing, and I have always been delicate with other people’s emotions and not wanting to cross any boundaries,” Gilbert displays over a Zoom name from his house in Tennessee. “A lot of good acts can be done for selfish reasons, and I [didn’t know] if I wanted to be the face of it.”
While Gilbert weighed opening up about his story, he went on tour shortly after, and it was on that very same trek that he started to really feel a shift in perspective. He realized that being a member of a beloved band may assist increase consciousness for this extraordinarily uncommon most cancers that’s typically “misdiagnosed or undetected” lengthy earlier than it’s too late for a lot of sufferers. “What I have isn’t a normal cancer, and a lot of the deaths are [because] doctors don’t know what it is — I would [even] end up educating the nurses,” Gilbert explains. As he too almost misplaced his life resulting from a sequence of misdiagnoses, sharing his expertise was of the utmost significance, not just for himself however many others. “I would think about how rare this cancer is and how the odds of my wife getting in a car wreck visiting me are greater than catching this cancer I have. So, whenever I started thinking [writing] might be a waste of time or energy, I [soon] realized, ‘Why am I going to punish myself?’ and take away the joy I have writing songs and doing music?”
From there, the analysis of most cancers “did the opposite” of slowing issues down and as an alternative pushed him to hold on together with his life with an unstoppable preventing spirit. “Even in the hospital, the day after my second spinal surgery, I walked around,” Gilbert says with delight. His fixed “drive to do whatever he can, even if it hurts,” amazed everybody round him, together with his surgeons, and this power has since remained his tenet all through his journey to restoration. “We all truly don’t know how precious our time is, and we take advantage of that, so I want to enjoy everything at all times, as much as I can,” he says. Gilbert assures that even when he does ultimately beat most cancers, he’ll “feel the same way,” particularly now with what he has gone via. “I’ve been given the gift to make it through, and [those] who were misdiagnosed never had that gift, so that’s why I want to do [this].”
When it got here time for Gilbert to ship the brand new songs to his longtime bandmates, they selected to place them collectively collaboratively in the identical room. The 4 members sat in a circle with nothing greater than their voices and some acoustic guitars to seize the intimate nature of the tracks and replicate on their deeply private subject material. “When you’re sitting in a chair with an acoustic guitar, you’re talking and really connecting. Everyone’s ideas and opinions are able to be heard easier and quicker — it [also] made it easier since everyone had the lyrics in front of them to connect on it on a different level.”
With the seven new tracks which might be featured on Make The Most Of It, Gilbert doesn’t shrink back from revealing his most private fears and resists sugarcoating the severity of his scenario, providing a very candid look into an individual’s distinctive wrestle with the illness. Among the various heartwrenching moments on the document, “Watch The Lillies Grow” is by far one of the crucial intense songs, with Gilbert making peace together with his personal mortality whereas reflecting on his life’s biggest accomplishments and the legacy he would depart behind if he did cross from the most cancers. “I don’t listen [to the song],” Gilbert admits, “I had to listen to the mix to approve it, but could barely get through that.”
During his varied stays within the hospital, Gilbert needed to “sign things about his death,” that means that if one thing have been to go improper, he would have to be ready in lots of points. “Being hooked to machines” for weeks on finish lead him to have a number of time to course of, which included his “biggest dream” of getting a daughter. “There’s never really been a Gilbert girl in my family, so thinking that God forbid I didn’t make it through those surgeries, [at least] I could go away with my dreams coming to true — that’s the positive thing to look at.” Gilbert references heaven and his personal private religion on the observe and shares how proud he’s of his daughter and the “friendship” that they’ve fashioned already, all whereas remaining conscious that for some individuals, they don’t all the time get to expertise that feeling of delight within the first place.
Another second of lyrical bravery and inspirational optimism is “Kiss The Floor,” a observe the place Gilbert says that most cancers “brought out the best in him” and even taught him a couple of essential classes alongside the best way that he now actively applies to his life. Gilbert realized that “knowing his fears” helped him use the scenario for good. “It made me want to try to be more loving, patient and slower to anger,” Gilbert says with confidence. “A lot of the things that we stress about in life, and the time we spend fearful of our future is not even reality — it’s just what ifs.” Gilbert as an alternative chooses to benefit from what makes “life worth living” as a result of even with challenges, Gilbert firmly believes “life can be better than you expect.”
Now, with Make The Most Of It on the horizon, Gilbert and New Found Glory have many causes to have a good time, as the brand new document will formally come out on the legendary hardcore label Revelation Records. Gilbert says New Found Glory, who’ve all the time had sturdy ties to the hardcore neighborhood, really despatched their 1999 debut album, Nothing Gold Can Stay, to Revelation Records to place out. However, they handed, with Gilbert joking that even years later they nonetheless joke about not signing the band again within the day. “With this record, the content and where we are at, it seemed like [Revelation] was the right place to do this one-off album with.” With Make The Most Of It, Gilbert is hopeful that it’s going to assist expose the subsequent era to the bands they used to hearken to on Revelation Records. “Hopefully [fans] will go back and buy a Texas Is The Reason, Youth Of Today or Gorilla Biscuits record — it’s a cool tradeoff,” he provides.
Following the discharge of the brand new document, New Found Glory can even hit the highway this winter for a particular run of intimate and unplugged exhibits surrounding the discharge — in addition to dusting off choose cuts from their huge discography in reimagined methods. “We always love promoting our new songs in the set, but we always [make sure] to play our classic songs to make the fans psyched,” Gilbert says. “With this tour, you are going to get a lot of the songs you have [always] wanted to hear that you don’t get at our normal shows.” He’s excited to report that the band’s dynamic is not going to merely be chairs on the stage, pledging that there will probably be “other instruments and growth” all through the set. “We’re going to try to make this [tour] our own little musical — it’s going to be a completely different show,” he says.
While New Found Glory’s devoted fanbase will certainly be on the entrance traces to buy the brand new document when it drops, they can even be joyful to know that they aren’t solely supporting a gaggle of hardworking artists, however their very buy will go a great distance within the combat in opposition to the uncommon most cancers that Gilbert has. Proceeds from the document will go to Pheoepara Alliance, an initiative that goals to offer assist for scientific analysis, consciousness and the continued well-being of sufferers battling the illness — the latter of which has been a serious assist in Gilbert’s private expertise.
“I’ve been gifted this career, and I feel so lucky. Now that we still have those same fans after 25 years, I need to give back as much as I can,” Gilbert provides. Make The Most Of It is arguably an important document of New Found Glory’s profession up to now, and whereas it’s an acoustic album, it’s most actually their heaviest album to this point emotionally. Even within the absence of crushing guitars and pounding drums, Gilbert and co. sound as uncooked as ever and have redefined the that means of creative transparency and vulnerability.
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