Jude Vol I

2019 release. From great tragedy comes great art. Or, at least, thats the hope. In creating their albums, Jude Vol. I and Jude Vol. II, The Bright Light Social Hour found making music to be a healing, cathartic process after the band was deeply shaken by grief. In 2015, around the release of the Austin groups second album Space Is Still The Place, Jackies brother Alex, the bands manager of four years, was deep in the delusional throes of severe and sudden bipolar 1 disorder. It was a time of immense stress and intensity for the musicians, who began writing songs for a new album in their home studio on Lake Travis as Alex spiraled. The songs took a turn when Alex took his own life on the shore of the lake, witnessed in its aftermath by Jackie. The contiguous albums, titled after Alexs middle name, are about what it means to lose someone and then be left to pick up the pieces. In November of 2017, the band drove to Los Angeles, armed with 18 songs that confronted their feelings of grief and loss, and spent several months recording in Sunset Sound with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Slowdive, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). There they narrowed the tracks down to 14 and found inspiration in the historic studio.