Tampa, Florida-based Rilian, the brainchild of Jerad Griffin, premieres the lyric video for “Are You Out There?” in partnership with Kenobi Records (the label of Anakin’s Brad Chancellor who co-produced the track) via Ghettoblaster today. The track is the sixth release from the label (KR006) and Rilian’s first for Kenobi Records.

The single is the high-flying, space rock debut for the musician whose previous musical resume includes a brief stint as the drummer of Anberlin and a contribution to The Nurse Who Loved Me Failure tribute album released via Pop Up Records (provided vocals for “Pitiful”).
“I wrote it after watching Interstellar,” Griffin confesses. “That movie blew me away. I was really intrigued by Matt Damon’s character that was stuck on the icy planet for a long time. I wanted to write it from his perspective and how it must have felt being stranded there for years, alone. It’s about dealing with loneliness and wondering if anyone is out there listening.
Influenced by arena dominating post rock and indie heavy hitters like HUM, Smashing Pumpkins, Jimmy Eat World, Weezer and Deftones, Griffin’s tremendous, cinematic sound is one that is all his own; he performs all instrumentation for Rilian’s music, tracking and engineering it (mostly) himself.
“I engineered most of it with the exception of the drums. I recorded all the guitars, bass and vocals in my bedroom closet with an SM7B and my amp into an mbox into Pro Tools. I tracked the drums at my friend’s (JJ Revell of Brother Cephus) place. He has a huge living room in a house that was built in the 1920s and gets great sounds out of it. He also has more mics than I do.”
“Joel Wanasek (Machine Head, blessthefall, Trapt, Nail The Mix, etc) did all the mixing and mastering,” he adds. “He took the song to a new level with his abilities as a mix/master engineer. He made it sound exactly how I envisioned it.
According to Griffin, the modus operandi of the project is simple, “just to make honest, loud space rock.”
“[Music is] my first love in life other than Star Wars. It’s extremely therapeutic for me. I’m constantly coming up with melodies and riffs and I just have to get them out of my head. I don’t feel normal if I don’t have a new song to work on.”
“I just hope it feels honest and it feels like me. I’m finally just writing what I want to hear.”
(Visit Rilian at:
Bandcamp: https://rilianmusic.bandcamp.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rilianmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rilianmusic
Visit Kenobi Records at:
Website: www.kenobirecords.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kenobirecords
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kenobirecords)