Esquela Announces Release of 'A Sign From God' Album

Today Esquela announces the June 25th release of their 5th studio album, A Sign From God, along with the premiere of the video for "Not In My Backyard" with Americana Highways. View it here. The 10-track album, produced by Eric "Roscoe" Ambel and recorded entirely remotely over the course of several months during the Spring and Summer of 2020, addresses several issues that were at the forefront of our cultural conversations during the pandemic - racism, sexual assault, and the climate crisis.

Premiering today, "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) was inspired by a conversation bandleader John "Chico" Finn had with a friend who was adamant that fracking was bad but was ok with mining for coal in West Virginia. He wrote the song to address the hypocrisy of humanity regarding our climate and our impact on the earth. Finn explains, "The bottom line is that energy is cheap right now...in order for the climate to improve will mean people will have to pay more for their energy source, and I am afraid it won't happen anytime soon, sad to say."

The NIMBY video was filmed during the pandemic, which ended up aligning perfectly with the title of the song as it features the band members performing in their backyards. Each band member filmed themselves with their phones then acclaimed indie film maker, Don Adams, whose credits include numerous music videos for other bands such as Jimbo Mathus, Eric Ambel and Angry Johnny and the Killbillies, edited their videos together with some stock footage.

For Esquela's first album since 2017, the band tackles songs about larger issues in the world around them. The album kicks off close to home with the anthemic "Not in My Backyard" discussed above and ends with "Wait For Me" a poem written by Konstantin Simonov, a Russian soldier during World War II, about the struggles of being away from home fighting a war. In between, we travel to the French village of Oradour Sur Glane destroyed by the Nazis in 1944 in "Oradura", explore racism in the deep South based on a personal experience in "Three Finger Joe" and home to Delaware County to explore some local history in "Two Stones".

Esquela started working on A Sign From God in the Spring of 2020. With COVID preventing everyone from getting together to record, each band member had their own home studio setup and with the expert assistance of producer, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, were able to contribute remotely.

Finn recalls, "Once the reality of COVID 19 hit us, nobody knew what was going to happen and for how long our normal routines would be disrupted. Since I was homebound for the duration - I decided that I should get my home recording studio up and running again. After weeks of technical frustration- I was finally able to get my home setup cobbled together with a Universal Audio Apollo interface and my MacBook, using Protools recording software."

He called on his friend and producer, Roscoe, and consulted with him about how to set up the various levels and microphone positioning, etc. and proceeded to record the scratch tracks on acoustic guitar with the vocals.

Over the next several weeks and months, he recorded new tunes and sent them along to Roscoe. He, in turn, would get them out to each musician in the band, who would work with him from their discrete home recording setups. Keith Christopher on bass, Brian Shafer on guitar, Becca Frame on vocals and Matt Woodin on guitars and mandolin. Mike Ricciardi played the drums at NewClear Studios, with Jeff Stachyra engineering. Each of them played their parts remotely in an order that shaped the songs. A 70's style overdub album - all done remotely, 2020 style.

Roscoe produced the tracks from his home studio, Evie's Terrace in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, playing guitar and singing killer harmonies, while his wife Mary Lee Kortes joined on key backing vocals.

"We started recording the tracks on May 15," Finn recounts, "by the time everyone had pitched in and recorded their parts for Roscoe to wrangle, he and Mario Viele were doing the final mix (with the band sitting in on the session remotely in real time) the day before Thanksgiving - at Cowboy Technical Services. After we tweaked our sequence, Mario Viele mastered the album.

We saw each other once for an afternoon 'pre-production' get-together on July 3. After that day, we never saw each other face-to-face. Everything was done remotely."

Esquela was formed in 2008 by John "Chico" Finn and Keith Christopher and together, they wrote and recorded the first album, The Owl Has Landed, which was released in 2010. While recording that album, Chico and Keith met Becca Frame, who wound up singing many of the lead vocals on The Owl Has Landed.

From there, the band added current players, Matt Woodin on guitar and mandolin and Brian Shafer on lead guitar. Esquela went on to record three more albums over the next ten years.

For 2021's A Sign From God, Esquela added drummer Mike Ricciardi to the band and producer Roscoe brought his masterful guitar playing and singing to the equation as well. Keith Christopher played bass on the entire album as well.

All songs on the new record were written by John "Chico" Finn, except for the final track, "Wait For Me", a poem by Konstantin Simonov, where Becca and Brian came up with the arrangements.

In addition to the pandemic making recording safely together in-person impossible, the band's efforts to get a band photo were also challenged by social distancing. Their creative solution was to commission artist Kate Burrascano (@crittercity) to replicate their likeness in a fun illustration.

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