As It Is to Release SO A-LIVE! EP Sept. 4, Launch UK Tour Sept. 3

Transatlantic pop-rock quartet AS IT IS have announced their forthcoming live-recorded EP, So A-Live!, due out September 4th via FLG. Recorded at Marshall Studios alongside Espera, the EP follows the release of the band's newly released self-titled fifth album.

Speaking of the new EP, frontman Patty Walters says, 'We're incredibly excited and proud to release the 'So A-Live!' EP, our first ever collection of live recordings. This is a project that we've all wanted to bring to life for years, but the right time never presented itself, until now. I feel like this album and these songs were the perfect moment to celebrate the songwriters, performers, and lifelong friends we are today. It was such a joy and a true privilege to spend the day performing alongside such talented and passionate musicians. The new embellishments and the absolutely unreal talent that Lyns, Mattie, Paige, Pete, and Blue brought to this session truly took these four songs to a new level. We're so humbled, appreciative, and proud to have created this EP with each of them, and we're thrilled to be sharing it with the world today.'

Lynsey Ward of Espera also shares, 'Writing and recording our feature on 'I'm So Alive!', the opening track on such a significant record in As It Is history, was already incredibly exciting. But there really is nothing quite like being in a room together and making it all happen live! The 'So A-Live!' session at Marshall Studios was chock-full of infectious joy and camaraderie. Patty, Ben, Ali and Foley demonstrated such trust in asking us to write and perform additional vocal arrangements for 'Do You Remember?', 'Live, Laugh, Love, Los Angeles,' and 'Marilyn', making it all the more meaningful that they now feature on this very special live EP release! Mattie, Paige and I are so proud to contribute towards such a powerful era for As It Is.'

To mark the announcement, the band have released 'Do You Remember' (Live At Marshall Studios), the second track on the So A-Live EP featuring Espera.

About As It Is

For As It Is, creating this project was, in the band's words, an absolute necessity. It was one way to attempt to recapture what once brought them together 13 years ago — a moment in time where Patty Walters, Ben Biss, Ali Testo, and Patrick Foley could reconvene for the first time in a long time, look back on the highest highs and lowest lows they have experienced together, and draw hope and inspiration from them once again. From that, they created As It Is, the first body of work made as a quartet in eight years.

For Patty, reaching that point meant finding a purpose outside of the band. To listen to 2022's I WENT TO HELL AND BACK, the band's fourth full-length album and only piece of work to not feature Ben or Foley following their respective departures in 2019 and 2020, is to hear Patty in fight or flight. But in stepping away from not just the band but music altogether around the birth of 2024 to seek professional help to exorcise demons and muddle through trauma, he was able to realise he could be all of the things that he wants to be.

'I realized the most important thing for me to do was find happiness, fulfilment and a sense of identity outside of all of this,' he explains. 'So, I found stability. Found help. Found that happiness. Then I slowly started to realise that the possibility of returning to music wasn't a regression but an opportunity to introduce more purpose into my life and use it as an outlet for self-expression. That's always been the best way that I've communicated with the world, through songs and performance, and I had been denying myself that for so long.'

Around the same time, Ben had contacted and reconvened with Patty, not as a bandmate but as a best friend to show support through the emotional turmoil that unloading so much from within can produce. Joined then by Ali and Foley for meetups, heart-to-hearts, and general hangs, starting in The Eagle in Brighton, this was four friends loving each other as that, and nothing else, for the first time in a very long time.

'I think that Ali is the only one of us with an actual brother,' Patty laughs. 'But I now have brothers because of As It Is. Because of how much they loved me and showed up for me when I needed them. I feel like we are going to be brothers first always and till the end because of that.'

Before all of this, Patty and Ben had attempted to write music as a pair, not for anything, just because it's what they had always done. Only after Patty took steps to properly heal through actual therapy did the conversation turn to the possibility of As It Is being their focus once more. The first fruit of their labors, 'Lose Your Way & Find Yourself,' took almost a year to the day of these conversations to be mixed, mastered and ready to go.

What followed were three additional trips into the studio with producer Kel Pinchin at the Ranch Production House in Southampton, allowing the band to space out their writing rather than forcing it. For the first time in their career, the band were making an album while not being in the middle of at least 200 days of the year on the road.

'We weren't previously able to heal and grow when we were in the thick of it,' Patty admits. 'We just had to cope and do our best, and within that, not always share that with each other. We could only share it with ourselves. When we were writing our second and third records, we were thinking about the bigger rooms we wanted to play and the bands we wanted to tour with as a result. This one was about as long as we are bringing out who we are and ourselves into the writer's room. It's not about what happens after we write, record and release. This is just who we are.'

From the raw storytelling of 'Ruin My Life' to the hope speckled 'What If It All Works Out,' the open looking back of 'Do You Remember?' to the curious understanding of 'Marilyn,' every song holds a different sort of sentiment.

'This is an amalgamation of the last 12 years as well as a new level of honesty and transparency,' Ben explains. 'This is the core and crux of who we are. We're never going to change from now on. It really is more about our relationship with each other and how, through everything, the four of us still have this bond, both as friends and musically. That has been tested a lot through the years, and these songs are now a real testament to our overarching brotherhood and love for each other.'

'You can never manufacture genuine connection with people,' Ben remarks. 'Just find what is honest to you and honest to your journey, and that's all any artist has to offer to the world. This is our reality, and reality is looking a bit more positive these days. We're a band known for four quite depressing albums. But days fluctuate, and things change. That's mental health. But to be able to look at everything with a different and more positive outlook on the future is all that we wanted to say.'

'This is the spirit and intention of the joy that formed As It Is in the first place,' Patty adds. 'It is reconnecting with the kids that we were when we started to write songs. And now, we're showing up with life in our eyes. We can listen to and support each other. This is the most in control and confident the band has been in a long time, but also the most proud. In the past, I had no choice but to be in As It Is. This new era of the band is my choice. Our choice. A choice. But in having it back, it means having maybe the biggest piece of myself back, too.'

Musicians Featured on So A-Live! EP

Patty Walters - Vocals, Guitar

Ben Biss - Guitar, Vocals

Ali Testo - Bass, Vocals

Patrick Foley - Drums

Lynsey Ward - Vocals

Mathilda Riley - Vocals

Paige Phillips - Vocals

Kianna Blue - Piano

Pete Fraser - Saxophone

Tracklist

1) I'm So Alive! (LIVE)

2) Do You Remember (LIVE)

3) Live Laugh Love Los Angeles (LIVE)

4) Marilyn (LIVE)

Tour Dates

9/3: TORQUAY @ Burn It Down Festival

9/4: WOLVERHAMPTON @ KK's Steel Mill

9/5: MILTON KEYNES @ Craufurd Arms

9/6: CAMBRIDGE @ Mash

9/8: NORWICH @ The Waterfront Studio

9/9: SHEFFIELD @ Corporation

9/10: HULL @ Social

9/11: NEWCASTLE @ The Grove

9/12: EDINBURGH @ La Belle Angele

9/13: LIVERPOOL @ District

9/15: BELFAST @ The Limelight 2

9/16: DUBLIN @ Academy

9/18: BLACKPOOL @ Bootleg Social

9/19: OXFORD O2 @ Academy 2

9/20: CARDIFF @ The Globe

9/21: GUILDFORD @ Boileroom

9/22: TUNBRIDGE WELLS @ The Forum

9/23: PORTSMOUTH @ The Wedgewood Rooms

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