Semaphore’s share post-shoegaze cover of Blink 182’s ‘Stay Together For The Kids’

This week, Semaphore will release the new album ‘I Need A Reason To Stay’ on March 24th. In anticipation they share Stay2gether, their post-shoegaze cover of Blink 182’s Stay Together For The Kids. Originally starting off as an experiment with new gear and music software, lead singer and guitarist Siddhu Anandalingam decided to fully flesh out this cover of one of his favourite Blink 182 songs, by adding a drum machine and dropping the tuning of the song to make it even moodier. For the track, he took inspiration from Brakence, My Bloody Valentine, Juice WRLD and of course, Blink 182. The song is augmented with a slowed down approach that heightens the traumatic nature of the lyrics, the chorus is treated to a wall of distorted guitars while vocals from lead singer Siddhu Anandalingam float in the ether above it all, seemingly dissociating from reality as a form of coping mechanism. Semaphore will celebrate the release of ‘I Need A Reason To Stay’ with a show at Golden Sounds in Brooklyn on March 26th and have announced select spring tour dates to follow. 

Watch the visualizer for Blink 182 cover Stay2gether via YouTube below.

Pre-Order ‘I Need A Reason To Stay’: https://linktr.ee/semaphoremusic

Watch the music video for No One via YouTube

Watch the music video for Smother on YouTube

Watch the visualizer for 01000110 via YouTube

Comprised of singer and guitarist Siddhu Anandalingam, drummer Emmett Ceglia, guitarist Jay Kohler, and bassist Niko Hasapopoulos, the Brooklyn-based quartet has been busy over the past few years navigating the lonesome loudness of modern life.  On the surface, Semaphore seems much like any other shoegaze band: they’re loud, atmospheric, and very, very moody. “We know we’re a bunch of sad boys singing for sad boys,” acknowledges Anandalingam, “but there’s a disaffectedness to a lot of shoegaze, an instinct to contribute to a collective droning, that Semaphore resists. We’re not trying to glorify numbness. We want to actually reach our audience.” This longing to connect underpins Semaphore’s work, lending an urgency to the band’s perspective, sound, and approach. 

Founded in 2013 by Anandalingam, Semaphore released its first album, ‘All Too Robot,’ in 2016, establishing the band’s scene-bending fusion of shoegaze, post-hardcore, and impressionist classical music. “It’s somewhere between My Bloody Valentine, Glassjaw, and Debussy, with a top note of angry teenage boy.” Their forthcoming release, ‘I Need a Reason to Stay,’ develops and complicates that premise: “so much of the music made for young people is very blunt and on-its-face. Our mission is to take the music that was foundational to us as both people and artists and evolve it into something sophisticated and inviting.” Semaphore’s unique sound luxuriates in the shifting tonalities, airy melodies, and lush orchestration of their greatest musical influences, incorporating songcraft and vocals in a decidedly un-shoegazey way. “It’s the music I would have wanted to listen to in high school.”

Upcoming Tour Dates

MARCH

26 – Brooklyn, NY – Gold Sounds (Album Release Show)

APRIL

08 – Staten Island, NY –  Mother Pug’s Saloon

22 – Brooklyn, NY – Gold Sounds

JUNE

02 – Brooklyn, NY – Windjammer

03 – Philadelphia, PA – Century

04 – Boston, MA – TBD

For more on Semaphore, visit www.semaphoreband.com.