INTERCONTINEN7AL Releases Acoustic Remix of 'Lighthouses'

INTERCONTINEN7AL, the project that bills itself as the first rock band in history to record music across all seven continents, has released 'Lighthouses (Acoustic Remix),' a moody, folk leaning reinterpretation of a track originally featured on the band's 2022 record, 'Volume 3.'

The original 'Lighthouses' began almost by accident. Freehold, New Jersey-born, now Castle Rock, Colorado-based bandleader Matt Smith was experimenting with synth effects on his phone in September 2021 when he recorded a one-minute descending bass line in A minor with a trip hop feel, uploading it to the band's shared BandLab folder just to see if anyone connected with it. A month later, his cousin Alex Burke added haunting piano chords to the intro, and the darker turn convinced Smith the song needed to become something more, a minor key duet about a relationship reaching its end. He wrote the lyrics and vocal melody in about 20 minutes, drawing on the feeling of his own past relationships winding down.

Remarkably, the vocal take that made the final mix was his very first attempt, recorded straight into his phone's microphone, a performance he could never quite recreate no matter how many times he tried. Bandmate Becca Drayer joined as the female half of the duet, and Argentina based Gustavo Prida reworked Smith's original drum programming to give the track its finished shape.

Two years later, in October 2023, Smith set out to rebuild the song entirely. He stripped away the original synth bass line and replaced it with a slide Drop D acoustic guitar riff while keeping the melody intact, softened the drum programming into more of a brush kit feel, and brought in longtime collaborator Marcin Nawrocki from Poland to record a new bass line to anchor the track. The rework took years of returning to the mix in stages before Smith felt it was finally ready for a wider audience this fall.

The result trades the original's electronic texture for something rawer. 'You were my beacon, but now our love has weakened,' the duet opens, building toward the song's central image: 'When the lights go out, safe harbor cannot be found, when the lights go out, best swim before we drown.' Reviewing the track, Alt77 likened the Smith and Drayer duet to 'the equally darkly romantic duets between Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell.'

INTERCONTINEN7AL's story is unlike any other band. What began in March 2020 as members of the Columbia, Maryland band Toast trying to keep collaborating remotely during the pandemic grew, through Smith's use of BandLab's public creator tools, into a project spanning more than 30 musicians across 15 countries.

Inspired by the Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways concept, Smith set out to find a musician on every continent, including Antarctica, eventually recruiting two researchers stationed there to record parts for the progressive rock track 'Manor Hill.' The band takes its name and stylized '7' from Tool's '7empest,' and its catalogue now spans seven volumes of original material. Within these volumes, there are five original songs that include instrumentation recorded on all seven continents. All five songs are compiled together on the band's 'World Over' EP. Every dollar of streaming revenue from INTERCONTINEN7AL's music is donated to humanitarian causes, including Stand Up 2 Cancer, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, St John's Hospice, the International Rescue Committee, the International Justice Mission and the GoFundMe COVID-19 Global Relief Fund.

That story has earned the band coverage from more than 200 news, music and media outlets, including Rolling Stone en Español, Spin, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Denver Post and Earmilk, among many others. The Big Takeover has called the project's music-first approach one where the songs 'speak volumes' despite the scale of the recording feat behind them, while Earmilk described the experience of the band's World Over EP as 'an audio journey unlike any other.'

As a project built entirely on remote collaboration across continents, INTERCONTINEN7AL has no touring plans, true to the borderless, virtual nature of how the band has always operated. With 'Lighthouses (Acoustic Remix),' the band proves that same spirit works just as well stripped down to a single acoustic guitar and two voices as it does with musicians recording from opposite ends of the globe.

INTERCONTINEN7AL Band Members

Matt Smith, Castle Rock, Colorado, USA, guitar, vocals, production

Becca Drayer, Columbia, Maryland, USA, vocals

Marcin Nawrocki, Torun, Poland, bass

Gustavo Prida, Buenos Aires, Argentina, drum programming

Alex Burke, Long Branch, New Jersey, USA, bass, synth

Josh Pearlson, Johannesburg, South Africa, guitar, synths, bass

Jukerok, Cairo, Egypt, guitar, piano

Aymar de Lichtervelde, Princess Elisabeth Station, Antarctica (resides in Brussels, Belgium), guitar, piano

Stijn Thoolen, Concordia Station, Antarctica (resides in Boston, Massachusetts, USA), percussion

Nerse, Chiang Mai, Thailand, violin, guitar, banjo

Tanabata (aka Tnbt), Kanazawa, Japan, drums

Robert James Shoveller, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia, guitar

Andrasta, Cleethorpes, United Kingdom, vocals

Miami73, Chambéry, France, guitar

Rousevision, Darmstadt, Germany, guitar, piano

Kelly Wandless, Gateshead, United Kingdom, vocals, guitar

Michael Ahart, Wicomico Church, Virginia, USA, percussion, production

Emily Betz, Columbia, Maryland, USA, vocals

Hope Gray, San Francisco, California, USA, vocals

Jamie Miller, Columbia, Maryland, USA, drums, djembe, cajon

Nereo Paulus, Buenos Aires, Argentina, bass, guitar, vocals, mandolin

Darren Fellows, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom, piano, guitar

Jeff Hobbs, Bexhill-on-Sea, United Kingdom, guitar

Rieneke van Laarhoven, Arnhem-Nijmegen, Netherlands, vocals

David Green, Chico, California, USA, guitar, vocals

Debby Greene, Columbia, Maryland, USA, vocals

Devin Heritage, Edgewater, Maryland, USA, bass

Dale Pearson (aka Dirty D), San Diego, California, USA, saxophone (deceased)

Ben Gaither, Columbia, Maryland, USA, vocals, guitar (deceased)

Ruslan, Chelyabinsk, Russia, guitar, synths

Yaroslav, Kyiv, Ukraine, guitar, drum programming