Description
Heaven High is an album by the American alternative rock band Lifesavers, released on Blonde Vinyl Records in 2013 as a Limited Edition CDr (Kickstarter limited release, only 100 made), and re-issued by Retroactive Records the following year, remastered at Steinhaus. The album was produced and recorded by Joshua Lory and Masaki Liu at One Way Studio in Concord, California; with additional production by Michael Knott and Rick McDonough. Mixed and mastered by Liu.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Mike Knott released the 1995 Lifesavers record Huntington Beach, and now he’s returned with a new, short-but-sweet collection of the band’s signature power pop.
It intrigues me how Knott travels back and forth between his various projects. Last year’s L.S.U. release was the darkest and heaviest thing Knott had released since The Grape Prophet, but now, a year later, we have a sunny collection of pop songs. This ability makes Knott one of the most varied and interesting artists in Christian music, even after 30 plus years in the business.
Heaven High proves that Knott still has it, though anyone who’s followed him knows he’s got a knack for melodic hooks, even on darker L.S.U. releases. It’s with Lifesavers that he lets these hooks be on display, and this new record is no exception.
Two tracks, «All Fall Down» and «Stereo Radio» were previously self-released by Knott in stripped down, acoustic forms, but here they get the full band treatment and are even better for it. The distortion stomp of «Bark Bite» and the synth hooks of «Ocean View Lane» also shine with the latter even throwing in some of Knott’s trademark “woo hoo” vocal stylings. The surf rock instrumental, «Dog Days of an Indian Summer» also gets high marks from me.
Lyrically, Knott isn’t saying much of anything here that’s spiritual. These songs seem more personal in nature, and in some cases are open to interpretation. But while there may not be a lot of “meat” for Christian fans to grab onto, the music is still fun rock and roll and is absolutely perfect music for driving around on a sunny day. Preferably with the top down. [Eric Landfried, The Phantom Tollbooth, 18 September 2014]
> Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/album/4gDX35qCRUVyfYIF4nXuj6)
CD tracklist:
01. Heaven High – 2:08
02. All Fall Down – 3:20
03. Bark Bite – 1:58
04. Offed My Head – 2:20
05. I Love It When – 2:27
06. Dog Days of an Indian Summer (instrumental) – 2:26
07. Oh Baby – 2:49
08. Stereo Radio – 4:32
09. Ocean View Lane – 2:18
10. Last Spring – 3:10
Note: Originally released through a limited edition Kickstarter. Remastered and re-issued by Retroactive Records. Available at Bandcamp: https://blondevinyl.bandcamp.com/album/heaven-high-retroactive-edition
Lifesavers, Heaven High, Retroactive Records Edition 2014
Lifesavers “Heaven High” 2.0 Vinyl/Cassette/CD – Kickstarter Campaign, 2025.
(185 backers pledged $10,373 to help bring this project to life.)Story
Back in 2012 I started writing songs to present to Michael as a possible new Lifesavers album, within the demos I had written new arrangements for his songs, “All Fall Down”, “Bark Bite”, “Stereo Radio”, and “Ocean View Lane” (a demo from the unreleased/unfinished Knott solo album “EvenStar”). Michael loved the stuff I wrote and was very excited to get working on this project. The album had a working title of “Dog Days Of An Indian Summer” and I launched my first Kickstarter campaign to help me cover some expense, it was only a $1,000.00 dollar campaign with a CD and Download reward, I had no idea how this whole thing worked, and at that time Michael Knott was off peoples radar, they were tough times in the Knott camp and my goal was to make a big sounding, well produced Lifesavers album. For years 3 of my favorite Knott releases were Lifesavers “Kiss Of Life”, “Poplife”, and “Huntington Beach” and my goal was to combine those three albums and add an extra layer to the sound, Mid 90’s Alternative Radio Pop rock bands like Green Day, Everclear, Jawbreaker, Eve 6, and Weezer were our musical reference point for that extra layer. I recruited my good friend Nick White who played in the overlooked Pop Punk band Divit, to cover the drum parts. I played bass and guitar. There were discussions of Cliffy Huntington playing guitar, but we just couldn’t line up the scheduling, so I asked Masaki Liu, whom I had already recruited to engineer the drum sessions and mix the album, to layer on some guitar and synth. Nick knocked out the drums for 13 songs in 2 days, after that I worked on bass, guitar, and some keyboard ideas. A few months passed and I flew Mike up to my Northwest coast home in Eureka, Ca, we tracked vocals for 6 songs, then Mike flew back to Huntington Brach with plans to finish vocals at Rick McDonough’s studio. Months passed, life happened, and the stress of getting the album out in a timely fashion built up. Mike was finally able to get into Rick’s and finished 2 more songs, scheduling once again was against us, I had 8 songs and an instrumental ready for the album and we were around a year into recording, the fans were getting antsy, as was I. I wanted to get it out, Mike and Rick had life to do, Mike had suggested that I sing on the tracks, he had no problem with it since Brian Doidge sang and wrote half of the “Huntington Beach” album, for some reason I talked myself out of it. I asked Mike if he had any acoustic tracks finished that we could add to the album to fill up the album to 10 tracks and Rick sent me a few songs to choose from and I landed on “Last Spring” because it fit in well with the unfinished tracks. The 10 songs would have to do unless we wanted to wait for the rest to get finished and nobody knew when that would be. So I rearranged the track order, of what would have been an epic album, down to what we presented. Don’t get me wrong, I love what we released, but that looming “what could have been” feeling never left.
Fast forward to 2023, I was planning on finishing the album with Mike and releasing it on vinyl, the album that should have been in the proper track order. Mike and I talked about it, were getting excited about it, but alas it was not meant to be. Michael Knott, a musical hero of mine, and most of all one of my best friends passed on to the next life. All of us in the Knott camp were and still are devastated and the grieving begun. In July, 2024 I found a CD of rough mixes of “Heaven High” as it was intended and it sounded so good, I poured my heart into writing that album and had a vision. I got to thinking and praying and remembered Mike telling me I should sing on the songs, so that’s what I’m going to do for the vinyl/cassette/cd rerelease of “Heaven High”, make the album that it was intended to be. I’m hoping this will bring new life to this very overlooked Knott release. The best part is the drums are already tracked, bass and guitar are being tracked as I type this, lyrics are written and vocals have started. Long time Knott collaborator and all around awesome guy, Rick McDonough will be adding some guitar on the new tracks. I will be hiring Masaki Liu to mix it and add the special seasoning he did on the other tracks. So there will be 4 bonus songs from the original session and intended track list, I apologize if you had your hopes up for more Mike on vocals, I also wanted that. Mike had started another song, but I found an email from Rick that he wanted to change some lyrics on the chorus and he only tracked one verse of the 3 sections, and never returned to it, that session is MIA. We carry on and carry the Lifesavers legacy the best we can and pay tribute to our brother Michael. I understand if you don’t want this and want the release as is, but I’ve discussed it with trusted friends in the Knott camp and they all gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. It’s not about me, it’s about making the album that should have been and a lot of musicians would love to have that chance with some of their releases. Please keep in mind, Michael Knott and I worked closely together and were close friends for 18 years, he trusted me.
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USA AND CANADA ONLY SHIPPING IS WHAT IS LISTED, PLEASE CONTACT ME HERE OR CONNECT WITH ME ON FACEBOOK AND I WILL ADD YOUR COUNTRY AFTER FINDING SHIPPING COST. YOU WON’T BE LEFT OUT!
The funding on this Kickstarter will cover mixing and mastering cost, as well as vinyl, cassette, and CD manufacturing.
Thank you all for all your support over the years!
Sincerely grateful, Joshua Lory
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