“Diary” is a full length album by Philly based singer songwriter project A Day Without Love, and it is the perfect name given to what is a series of writing prompts that gave birth to a poetry chapbooks worth of unfiltered, raw, real experiences and feelings. Brian Walker states on their website that after a birthday they decided to embark on a writing project: writing 5 songs each about the themes of Mental Illness, Politics, Equality, Racism, Faith, Love and Friendship. After the final result got cut in half, we are graced with the hour long, 24 track acoustic full length that pulls no punches. And honestly, not that I have the authority to say whether or not this album was written for white people, but every white person who takes part in music scenes, activism, or any arts community which claims to be a safe space but primarily has white people attending and performing should listen to this record. Well, not just listen to it, but also buy it because fuck learning stuff for free. But I love this album specifically because of its honesty, which comes to me at a incredibly on point moment while our country is literally imprisoning children of folks detained at our border and separating them from their parents. Those of us white folks in the punk scene (and all over the country) obviously do not do enough if it has come to this.
The guitar playing on this album ranges from folky singer-songwriter to downright beautiful plucking. One of my favorite tracks on “Diary” when it comes to pure sound is Track 14, “Prayer”. I do not want to write ADWL into a corner re: songs about activism and responses to racism. This album has so much content in it, about so many life experiences, it is amazing. “Prayer” has an incredible guitar lick, which I think represents the genre spanning talent of ADWL despite only being recorded with an acoustic guitar. Some of these songs are folky, some of these songs tinge of old school emo, some of these tracks are spoken word tracks or (maybe?) scripted conversations/interactions. In some sections, wall of sound vocal harmonies support a powerful narrative. “Diary” is a brilliant fountain of creativity and power.
At Boston Hassle we were lucky enough to get a few deeper insights into the process of making this great body of work:
Boston Hassle: Where does your writing style come from? Are you a writer of a more traditional format? Some of the prompts used to make “Diary” seem more from the world of slam poetry than songwriting.
A Day Without Love: Am I a writer of traditional format? I would not say so because I never took a songwriting class. I took one poetry class and dropped it because I was tired of learning formats without feelings . I write from experiences and a background that is diversified. As for the spoken word piece I grew up on spoken word as a child and started writing poetry at 11. I get my folk background from friends, but I don’t think I am soft enough on the inside to be folky . I don’t mean that in a mean way, but theres a level of delicacy you need to have about yourself to sing and play folk and I don’t have it and if I did I’d be holding back.
BH: What inspired the format of the album?
ADWL: I would say both my first album and my life inspired it. When I wrote my first album, Solace, I wrote about finding peace with myself. But in Diary I wrote about a timeline of what I have struggled with and what I still struggle with. I see Diary as a timeline of experiences and realizations I have had before and after writing Solace. I chose the topics because they are topics that on a high level I have struggled with everyday. From being in debt, to having had to wait 3 years to not having health insurance to still not experiencing true human intimacy I needed to document this because I knew it was not unique to me and wanted to help others. I chose the raw recording approach so I can be as true to the title as possible. Not to mention I could not afford a 24 song album in a studio with full arrangements you would be talking a 5 to 24k budget and student loans have killed me enough.
You can find, listen to, and buy “Diary” by A Day Without Love on their bandcamp, as well as catch more of their work on Soundcloud, Youtube, and Facebook. They are on tour with fellow Philly performer Marcelyn and will be playing at Zuzu on Thursday June 28th! You can keep up with that show at the Facebook Event Listed Here.
Photo Credits: Briana Spause
