Ted Sablay to Release STATE & MOTION LP

Ted Sablay is set to release his new LP State & Motion everywhere on September 25. Clocking in at ten songs and thirty-eight minutes, the record is described as heartland bones and power-pop hooks. Glide Magazine has an exclusive full-album stream up now, along with Sablay's track-by-track notes on every song, available at Glide Magazine.

Sablay will celebrate release night Friday, September 25th at 6 p.m. with a free vinyl listening party and short acoustic set at Echo Taste & Sound, 1301 S. Main St., Las Vegas (21+).

About Ted Sablay

For nearly twenty years, Ted Sablay has helped bring some of modern rock's biggest songs to audiences around the world. Since joining The Killers as a touring guitarist in 2006 (and serving as the band's Musical Director since 2022), he has spent thousands of nights inside songs that have become part of people's lives.

His new album, State & Motion, is what he calls the result of that experience. 'This is not 'The Killers' sideman finally speaks',' says Sablay. 'Rather, this record is, fundamentally, about the difference between bearing something and choosing something.'

Rather than rushing to follow his 2022 solo debut You'll Be Back Here Soon, Sablay spent the next four years dismantling and rebuilding his songwriting from the inside out. The songs on You'll Be Back Here Soon connected. People cared. But living with the record left Sablay thinking less about what he had accomplished than about what remained possible. Good songs, he realized, could always become better songs. 'I wanted songs that weren't contingent on your liking me,' he says.

The difference between bearing and choosing comes from somewhere specific. Sablay is the youngest of six; his father, a physician, came to the U.S. from the Philippines, and his mother was a nurse. 'Nobody ever said it out loud, but the message in that house was pretty clear: if you're not saving lives or doing something important, what are you doing?' he says. 'So I was raised to be useful, and I got good at it. Most of this record is me working out what I'm worth on a day when I'm not useful to anyone.'

Directing The Killers' live band taught him 'the difference between a vibe and a song.' On his debut he layered until there were ninety tracks; this time he made a rule that every song had to hold up with one guy and an acoustic guitar. He writes music first, sings nonsense over it until real words show up, then rewrites everything in service of what he calls the song's 'controlling idea,' a term borrowed from screenwriting teacher Robert McKee — a method he now teaches to songwriting students around the world.

'At some point you have to work out what you're actually interested in, what you're actually capable of, and what the world actually has available for you,' Sablay says. 'This record is the first time those three overlapped for me.'

Personnel: Ted Sablay (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums), Whynot Jansveld (bass), Ian Hendrickson-Smith (horns). 'Baby I Need You' produced and mixed by Sam Cohen.