Inside the Anchors Aweigh tattoo shop in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, the history of the Bouncing Souls is literally hanging from the walls.
For bassist Bryan Kienlen, his shop’s framed display of his band’s discography – 13 LPs and counting – serves as a visual timeline of a 30-year career that has documented the band’s lives like a series of musical memoirs. Sitting among the framed tattoo art and the hum of tattoo machines, Kienlen is preparing for one of the biggest weekends in the band’s storied history: the June 26 release of their new album, Born to Be, followed immediately by the return of the Stoked for the Summer hometown throw-down at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park on June 27.
While their previous effort, Ten Stories High, was an exercise in telling the stories of their fans, Born to Be marks a return to a more internal, personal style of songwriting. “You could follow our lives [through the records],” Kienlen noted in an interview with The Pop Break.
This new chapter was forged in an unexpectedly intimate setting. Before heading into the studio with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, the band gathered in Kienlen’s living room with acoustic guitars and a small acoustic bass.
“We gave each song its first impression, didn’t overthink it, didn’t belabor any of them,” Kienlen explains. This “living room session” allowed the band to capture the essence of the tracks before Yip helped them boil it all down in the studio. The result is a record Kienlen considers the band’s most inspired in years, born from a desire to address the “elephant in the room” — the current state of division and suffering in America.
However, fans shouldn’t expect a political manifesto. Kienlen is clear that the Bouncing Souls haven’t turned their live show into a political rally. Instead, they are responding to the collective pain of the moment in a “distinctly Souls way.” “The blues is acknowledging pain,” Kienlen said, but the Souls choose to confront that darkness with their signature PMA, or positive mental attitude.
This emotional honesty is front and center on the new tracks. Kienlen described a complex emotional dynamic on the album, split between the pain of tracks such as “Only Echoes,” the hope found in the shining number “Lighthouse” and the rousing energy of “Border Town.” The album balances heavy themes with tracks like “All the Good Things,” a song about shifting one’s “vibration” toward the positive aspects of life.
The celebration of the new record kicks off on Friday, June 26, with the “Born to Be” release party at 5 p.m. at The Art Spot, 1100 Ocean Ave. on the Asbury Park Boardwalk, featuring an acoustic Souls performance.
The festivities continue 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Saturday, June 27 at the Stone Market punk rock flea market at Trinity Church, 503 Asbury Ave. in Asbury Park, as well as with tattooing at Anchors Aweigh, 712 Main St. in Bradley Beach, starting at noon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The momentum carries into the return of Stoked for the Summer, which this year features Less Than Jake, The Lawrence Arms, Bane, School Drugs and Twenty Two, with doors opening at 4 p.m. Saturday.
For Kienlen, the event at the Stone Pony Summer Stage feels less like a concert and more like “hosting friends from out of town” at the New Brunswick-native band’s adopted home base. “It’s just in our blood,” Kienlen says of the party atmosphere, tracing it back to the band’s early days playing house parties.
As the Bouncing Souls prepare to take these new songs on the road, the weekend at the Stone Pony serves as a powerful reminder of their roots. Between the raw honesty of Born to Be and the communal joy of Stoked for the Summer, the band continues to prove that even in dark times, there is always room for PMA.
