Like Clockwork opens his wounds on new album

It’s been said before, and it’s going to be said again: music is one of the greatest outlets to express how you feel. Whether it’s to express a happy moment like the birth of your first child or getting out those tears during a break-up, add a melodic line to those words and you got a song.

Like Clockwork’s latest album These Are All Things documents the man behind the band Jesse Owen Astin’s heartbreak.

“The whole record is basically about this one relationship that I’ve had and been involved in in the past three years. Trying to piece things together that make it where I was OK to put it out. Being an artist, it was very difficult. I can’t explain it. It was a very difficult process,” said Astin.

Since it’s a personal album (not that all albums ever made are impersonal), Astin took over two years to release it. He also wanted the quality of the production to be as perfect as possible.

“I had an enormous amount of pressure on myself and just being a total perfectionist, it was like I would get caught up in circles. I would constantly try to make things better and eventually, when the new year hit, I have to book a mastering session and set a date to be done with it. Because if I don’t, I’m going to drive myself absolutely insane,” said Astin.

Instead of releasing the entire album on iTunes or Bandcamp, Astin has been releasing one song at a time since Feb. 14. This was intentional, because of the content of the album (Astin also confirm that the girl does know she’s the subject).

“Well, there are several reasons, but the first being is that it is a very that emotional record, and very dramatic, and epic, and heavy... in a sense that the content of what the record’s about is very heavy. I felt like I would be doing the listener a huge injustice by dropping this huge fucking bomb on them,” said Astin. “So I decided well, if I do it one song at a time, not only will I be slowly letting people hear it and soak it in, but also gives a week of time per song to really focus on that song and promote it.”

All the tracks that have been released from These Are All Things can be found at likeclockwork.net. You can also stream the tracks below.