On September 9th, known rockers around Binghamton, NY Dan Clarke and Thomas Lewis released an indie rock collaborative EP titled Do Your Best. Dan Clarke makes up the one-man band called Rearview, who put out their debut single only a year ago called “I’ll Be Ok” featuring JT Tollas of Famous Last Words. Since Rearview technically only consists of one person, Dan turned Rearview into a really cool, creative project of collaborations with other artists of the music industry. Thomas Lewis is the featured artist of this release, who is also the singer/songwriter/guitar player of local Binghamton band Tom Jolu. The various sounds Tom brings to Tom Jolu are perfect to transfer into the no-genre based project of Rearview. This EP by Rearview and Tom Jolu sounds a lot different from the debut release, and shows the potential of what a great, unique idea Rearview could turn out to be.
Do Your Best is a short and sweet, three song indie rock EP. The first track is called “There You Are”, featuring pretty, fingerpicking acoustic guitar and lovely layers of vocals merging together to form a clean, harmonic opening song. Then the EP gets a little more upbeat with the second song “Smoke”, which has an added indie-folk edge to begin, but ends with an electric, classic rock-esque guitar solo. However, the title track is the stand out song of this release. From the endearing message of lyrics, and the gradual build up of sound and emotion, to the slick and catchy lead guitar riff that hooks the listener in – this song stands out. Each instrument flows together so well, and it makes for a great closing track to the album.
Dan Clarke says Rearview as a whole “pushes to shatter the boundaries and stigmas that surround manufactured music”, which is evident based on the quality of production for this EP. Heavily produced music can still be creative, and that production can be included in the creative process. The idea of a band being a collaboration of different artists with no set style or even set band members (other than Dan) is such an unique idea. Each release we ever get from Dan will be a completely new experience. What Dan wants is nothing but “pure expression”, which will definitely be found when working with artists within the industry who have different styles and something new to bring to Rearview.
Written by Autumn Martin
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