Bio
Henry McIntyre is a singer/songwriter based in Boston, playing a mix of folk and indie rock in the vein of Elliott Smith, the Beatles and the Cure.
Beginning his career at the age of 9, McIntyre played lead guitar in the rock band, Black Diamonds. Throughout his adolescence, the band played venues across New England and Canada. In the band’s 8 year existence, they released two EPs, and even earned the Guiness World Record for the World’s Youngest Professional Rock Band.
After the dissolution of Black Diamonds, McIntyre emerged from the side-stage and launched his solo career. McIntyre released his homegrown and intimate debut album, Highly Influenced in May 2018. He played all of the instruments and handled all the of the production. The melancholy energy is centered around McIntyre’s double tracked vocals and melodic guitar work. Lyrically, the album explores the transition from adolescence to adulthood and everything that comes with it.
For his next move, McIntyre decided to expand his scope. McIntyre began creating in a manner similar to that of his debut: recording and producing on his own. However, in contrast to the intimate sound of Highly Influenced, McIntyre decided not to limit himself to any preconceived notions or rules. Inspired by the lofi bliss of bands such as Pavement and Neutral Milk Hotel, McIntyre set out to bring his sound to new heights. The result is Box on the Ear, a sprawling and eclectic set of songs. McIntyre put an increased emphasis on harmonies, textures, and instrumentation, creating a fuller, bigger sound. McIntyre also decided to change his approach lyrically. Instead of offering personal and confessional lyrics, he wrote about an existential crisis brought on by the world around him, and combined it with stream of consciousness musings surrounding human nature and his place in the world. The album was preceded by the single, “Elegy” which showcased McIntyre’s alternative folk sound with the addition of harmonies and a choral breakdown. The second single and title track of the album, “Box on the Ear,” is a perfect example of McIntyre’s growth as an artist. It begins with a haunting acoustic intro that builds to a chaotic wall of distorted guitars and soaring vocals, all while lyrically retaining an abstract feeling of loss. Henry McIntyre’s new album, Box on the Ear, is slated for release on May 24th, 2019.
Box on the Ear
- Leopold
- Ordinary Men
- Box on the Ear
- Suffering
- Liberation
- Elegy
- Perfect Things
- Somewhere
- Give Me Life
- Ghosts in the Fog Pt. 1
- Ghosts in the Fog Pt. 2
Credits
Henry McIntyre- Production, Mixing except on track 2, Mastering except on track 2, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Piano, Mandolin, Vocals
Tyler Legare- Vocals on track 3 and 9, Guitar track 9, Percussion track 9
Abbey Basile- Vocals tracks 1, 5, 8
Merit McIntyre- Vocals track 8
Aj Marks- Mixing track 2, Mastering Track 9
Cover art by Tyler Legare, Grace McIntyre, and Will Dickson
All Songs Written by Henry McIntyre
Lyrics
- Leopold
Kings are losing power all across the world
Deferring to the voices of people once unheard
But now I’ve found my turn
A land to be proud of a land that’s all my own
Full of nameless people who are living in their zone
The world may never learn
One step ahead of the world’s natural turn
Found a way to spin it all to justify its worth
Where’s all your concern?
Men bring me the right hand to justify the kill
Just like I take the profits to justify myself
They’ll never return
Dad needed warning just to catch his eye
While I was trained on horseback, more interest in counting dimes
Look what it was for
Forced into my life of loneliness and still
I’ve found a way to fight what I want and I will still
In 100 years few have fussed
Radiator too hot to touch
Erase my life away
Make them all believe that I am the most generous of Kings
Heart is too cold to love
History of myself is rough
The memory of the nameless, faceless
Is loss
2. Ordinary Men
We lose all self control when we get
The power to life and to death
And I’d be no different I know that I’d let
The power get into my head
Ordinary Men can kill
There’s no exception
Ordinary Men can Kill
And I’m no different
Ordinary Men can Kill
And to ourselves we say so long
1,600 Souls a piece
The teachers, the old men, police
Leaders of institutions protect
Now lead the cleansing of death
Ordinary Men can kill
There’s no exception
Ordinary Men can Kill
And I’m no different
Ordinary Men can Kill
There’s no solution
Ordinary Men can Kill
And to ourselves we say so long
3. Box on the Ear
One man thought you wouldn’t care
Because no one spoke their massacre
Creating unity is what its for
Hide it all behind the guise of war
Take them to the desert
Throw them in the sea
So many questions like
Is this unity?
Take them to desert
Throw them in the sea
How would it be different
If it was you and me?
A fading empire crumbling at the edge
Falls apart and won’t live again
Box on the ear, kill ambitions
And soon you find you’re killing generations
Take them to the desert
Throw them in the sea
So many questions like
Is this unity?
Take them to desert
Throw them in the sea
How would it be different
If it was you and me?
This is what you want
This is what you are
4.Suffering
Guess he found a better way for life
Finally has the power
And he has the might
To do what he wants
And end his somber life
Never thought just to fix his mind
Fix his mind
Now he puts a spike into his vein
Found a way to numb eternal pain
Hope he’ll find, Hope he’ll realize
That his pain just won’t go away
With a high
I hope someday
There’ll be no more sorrow, no more pain
But for today there’ll be suffering in some new place
Now he found a steady paying job
Makes phone calls, his days are all a fog
Hope he finds, hope he’ll realize
That he lives for a hollow enterprise and not his life
Not his life
I hope someday
There’ll be no more sorrow, no more pain
But for today there’ll be suffering in some new place
Another lifeless face
Another life to waste
Another empty face
It all starts with suffering
5. Liberation
Don’t you wish that liberation was as happy as it sounds?
Don’t you wish that we could live on, we could live as one
Liberation never came for some
How do you live on when all these things are done?
How do I live on
With all these things on my mind
Well I tried so hard to forget the past
But when it’s gone it comes back fast
Images of train stations
and all these things that I can’t comprehend
I can’t comprehend it all because it’s just fate
It never came for some
How do I live on?
With all these things on my mind
Liberation
6. Elegy
Searching for a way to keep important things away
Sometimes what’s on my mind needs to unwind
And I don’t think you understand
That it is all out of my hands
And I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to everything
I feel the pain of those I don’t know
But I try to let it go, you know
This is an elegy to all the things we left behind
An elegy, an elegy
Tried so hard to forget what brings down my mind
I’ve been talking ‘bout all these ways to change myself
The only thing that I do is nothing
I find myself preoccupied, solutions I don’t ever find
And I feel the pain of those I don’t know
But I try to let it go, you know
This is an elegy to all the things I left behind
An elegy, an elegy
Tried so hard to forget what brings down my mind
There is too much wrong
To make it right now
Is there too much to overcome?
This an elegy to all the thing I left behind
An elegy, an elegy
This an elegy to all the things you won’t believe
People gone, the damage done
7. Perfect Things
This is an existential crisis backed by stone cold evidence
You have no control of some things that control you and everything
But it’s alright to deny
There is a place I go when it is all too much now to take
But when I leave that clarity I find that it is all now fake
But it’s alright, I can hide
I confide in you
That there’s only truth in what I say and what I do
We only love perfect things
And we only fix broken things
When you’re broke and beaten down,
There’ll be no one left around
Because we only only love perfect things
There was a time I only feared that what I did was only wrong
I was depleted and defeated, had my back against the wall
But it’s alright, now I’m fine
I got this feeling that this feeling will be coming back again
I got this feeling that my feelings are the one that always wins
But it’s alright because we all die
I confide in you
That there’s only truth in what I say and what I do
We only love perfect things
And we only fix broken things
When you’re broke and beaten down,
There’ll be no one left around
Because we only only love perfect things
8. Somewhere
I need a glimmer of light
A single shooting ray of sunshine
Somewhere far away there’d be only right
I hope someday I’ll do right
Find strength and will that’s inside
Somewhere far away, there’d be only right
In some other land
There’d be a blimp in the plan
Extending my hands, hope others now can
9.Give me Life
God spoke to me in events today
Said that’s how quickly I can take it away
So you, you better be grateful son
Been living my life in all these careless ways
Sulking while the little things all circulate
But now my ignorance is well and done
Please give me life
Just one day at a time
I’ll make it all worthwhile
Please give me life
You overcompensate to take it away
You take another rip and then it all stays the same
Oh please, take me to another world
You overcompensate to make the best of things
You shake it all up to make me think
Oh please, beat me down until I learn
Please give me life
Just one day at a time
I’ll make it all worthwhile
Please give me life
Running in circles, we’re chasing our tails
Escape from the fact that someday we all fail
Hoping the door to a life won’t get shut
Hold on to something, I just don’t know what
So many things that I don’t know about
I live with the fear of success and of doubt
I get hung up on the things that I did
Get up off your back now
And lighten up you kid
God spoke to me in events today
Said that’s how quickly I could take it away
So you, you better be grateful son
Please give me life
Just one day at a time
I’ll make it all worthwhile
Please give me life
10.Ghosts in the Fog Pt. 1
If there’s anything that you want
Never come to me
Because I got no respect for useless things
Be careful not to plead
About every passing thing
Because you never know what comes to be
If I could know all these people thats I sing about
The world would be a better place to be
I don’t know what keeps me going
I don’t know what keeps me going on
When I’m lost
Well if there’s anything that you want
Be careful to fill needs
Because you never know where you will be
Perspective is the key to happiness you see
And now I only respect basic needs
I don’t know what keeps me going
I don’t know when there’s so much going on
There’s people and there’s places haunted by the ghosts
Of the people who came there fate horrifically
And how can I live in that world?
Well if there’s anything that you want
Think about what you need
And when I think of killing I think Lalala
I don’t know what keeps me going
I don’t know in a world that has done wrong
In a world that has done wrong
There’s ghosts in the fog but clouds in the sky
But I don’t decide what’s right
There’s ghosts in the fog
There’s deception and lies
There’s people here that died
There’s people here that I will never know
But I wish that wasn’t so
Well if there’s anything that you want
Never come to me
If there’s anything you need
You got a friend in me
11. Ghosts in the Fog Pt. 2
The world will put you in your place
Leave you with nothing to say
Will put you in your place
How do I go about my day
Knowing all of these things
They put me in my place
There’s ghosts in the fog
But there’s clouds in the sky
There’s music and there’s people here that don’t ask why
And I don’t know what you’ve been told but
There’s people and they’re family and they’re not alive
There’s ghosts in the fog
There’s deception and lies
There’s people and they are faces they were left to die
And I don’t know what I can do
So I just think about what is left to lose
Death it happens everyday
In each and every place
Pretend it’s far away
How as I realize their fate
How do I stay away
And hope it’s not my fate
There’s ghosts in the fog
But there’s clouds in the sky
There’s music and there’s people here that don’t ask why
And I don’t know what you’ve been told but
There’s people and they’re family and they’re not alive
There’s ghosts in the fog
There’s deception and lies
There’s people and they are faces they were left to die
And I don’t know what I can do
So I just think about what is left to lose
Henry McIntyre 