In 2011, PARACHUTES had to face the ugly truth and realize that a big chapter for them was inevitably coming to an end. After ten years of touring all over Europe, after almost 400 shows that included supports for RISE AGAINST, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, BOYSETSFIRE, SILVERSTEIN, UNDEROATH or TAKING BACK SUNDAY, after three albums, several line-up changes and the leaving of principal songwriter and bassist Elmar Weyland, the Saarland, Germany-based quintet found that eventually it was time to decide who they were and what they wanted as a band. “We were absolutely running on empty and needed a break so bad, even if we didn’t want to admit it to ourselves“, remembers guitarist Carsten Jung. During the following hiatus, the band members not only caught up on a number of private and professional matters that had taken a back seat in the past, but also used the time off to give some serious thought to what was to become of the band’s future. PARACHUTES Titel: Blueprints “In a situation like that, you wonder whether you really want to keep doing this to yourself“, Jung confesses. In retrospect, the question seems an easy one to answer, Release-Date: 05.10.2012 though. Guitarist Christian Hunsicker switched to Bass, the two new guys (former REDFIELD 069 Drummer for ROAD TO KANSAS, Stefan Schaus, as well as David Halberstadt, a long-time friend of the band) turned out to be a perfect match, and the rest somehow Barcode CD: naturally derived from the lessons of the past: Reducing the pressure on everyone, 4260080811040 making better use of the precious hours together in the practice room, opening up to new influences as well as including talent from the band’s environment in the process LC 12650 of creating a record. „In short, we are just totally stoked to be back!“ This, however, is something which pretty much becomes evident after the first run- Tracklist: through of the new album. “Blueprints“ tells the (fictitious) story of architect Nate 1. Through The Mist 2. Comas Anderson and is the courageous effort of a band who has clearly gotten uncomfortable 3. Let Me Build A Bridge And Tear It in their skintight genre-corset. “Starting out as a three-chord punk band, we became a Down three-chord emo/screamo/post-hardcore band and have since evolved into three-chord 4. Dark Waters rock band“, Jung laughingly sums up the musical development PARACHUTES have 5. Mirror Universe undergone. “This time, right from the beginning, we agreed that anything goes 6. Cascades Of Light musically. That is why we experimented a lot more than we did on the previous 7. Shard Collector records. We wanted to be free from all the restrictions that seem to come with being 8. Gezeitenwechsel part of a scene, something we had burdened ourselves with over years, I guess. With 9. The Downfall this album, we didn’t just want to repeat ourselves and do the same thing over again. 10. Arcane The idea was to break new ground and create something original, something with a 11. Javelins genuine meaning to us.“ 12. Kammerflimmern 13. A Luminous Black When it came to the recording itself, however, the band did not take any chances. Just like every PARACHUTES album before, “Blueprints“ was produced at SU2-Studios by Production: Phil Hillen (SU2 Studios) Phil Hillen, who this time also handled the mastering. As far as the sound of the record was concerned, everybody had a clear vision very early on: “We wanted it to be Mastering: Phil Hillen (SU2 Studios) completely real, no triggers on the drums, no digital amp modeling, no auto-tuned vocals, just a transparent, natural sounding record. Phil has been involved in this from Artwork: Jan Halberstadt beginning to end and there was simply no reason to have somebody else master the record for tons of extra money and without any clue of what our vision for this project was. We wanted somebody with a connection to the band beyond all the business evaluations. The album’s atmosphere, the right sound, the telling of a story - all that was way more important to us than namedropping and wanna-be-rockstar bullshit.“ Sometimes it seems, when one chapter is over, it can inspire you to start the next one Kleine Masch 16 instead of finishing the book altogether. It gives you a chance to take a step back and D- 49324 Melle get a better look on the big picture. And that’s exactly what makes the new Tel.: +49 (0) 5422 7039878 PARACHUTES album a perfect blueprint for exciting rock music. Fax.: +49 (0) 5422 7039879 www.redfield-records.de BAND Stefan Kinn (Vocals), David Halberstadt (Guitar), Carsten Jung (Guitar), Christian Hunsicker (Bass), Stefan Schaus (Drums) ALBUM-DISCOGRAPHY: 2012 Blueprints (Redfield Records) 2009 The Working Horse (Redfield Records) 2008 Vultures (Redfield Records) 2006 And I won't stop until you've lost everything you ever loved (Lockjaw Records) www.theparachutes.com .