Anthony Savino Releases Thoughtful 'Back Before the Fall'

Anthony Savino didn't know the songs that would eventually come to be Back Before the Fall, out today, formed a full album until months after he recorded them in early 2020. Savino later began to understand how specific stories sit between chapters, offering surprising reflections on what is happening around us in real-time. He realized one thing was clear: the old ways may definitely be gone and the future may be uncertain, but time will continue to mark its befores and afters, like always. Savino sings about work and money, as well as the changes that come with time, both incremental and instantaneous. The album highlights his clear voice and poetic lyrics with mindful arrangements of guitars, bass, drums, and an upright piano.

The first song of the album's 10 tracks, "Fuller Plate," picks up where his last album, 2019's Good Job, left off: the plight of the worker, set to a strummed guitar. A full band, including Ian legge on drums and Emily Goldstein on vocals, joins in on the second track, "Remember When," which ruminates on two different concepts of time.

Several of the songs were written on the upright piano that's heard on the album, which Savino left in Rhode Island when he and his partner moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 2020. "Hearing its heavy creaks and dark tones brings me back to the before-times, when there seemed to be less uncertainty," he says. "Naturally, many of these songs have taken on new meaning since the events of the past year."

"Million Dollar Bill," inspired by New England's plentiful retired mill buildings that are often repurposed as retail, office space or apartments, melts together multiple timelines that share the same architecture, infrastructure, and characters, suspended in one long story that continues today. "One-Track Mind" ponders the creative process, and to a larger extent, making music in general. The song goes through the progresses, failures, diversions, distractions, and whatever else it takes to create something. "The Old Me" chronicles a previous experience, but now holds a new layer of nostalgia.

Savino has been writing songs since middle school, after the forbidden music of the Beatles and Nirvana helped lead him out of a cloistered Christian upbringing. Savino circled the open mic and songwriter scenes of New Bedford, Boston, and Providence, recording solo albums and EPs, while also touring and recording with rock bands. His songs describe his experience as a service worker in recession-era America, city life in the post-industrial cities of Southern New England, and the alienation brought on by consumerism and mass media. He has performed at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA, the Columbus Theatre in Providence, RI, and the New Bedford Folk Festival. Savino was a facilitator for the Brown Arts Initiative Songwriting Workshop at Brown University from 2018-2019. He now resides in Los Angeles.

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