Scott Sneddon – Vocals

John Hussey – Guitar

Edge Of Free is modern rock with a combination of acoustic riffs, heavy guitars and heartfelt lyrics that are both melodic and hard-hitting. Their songs of addiction, love, loss, and survival are delivered with the passion that can only come from someone who has lived it. Produced by Toby Wright (Alice In Chains, Korn, Tantric, Metallica), Edge Of Free's debut, self-titled album is an intimate collection of honest songs powered by guitarist John Hussey’s dynamic music and singer Scott Sneddon’s dark melodies, soaring choruses, and gut wrenching lyrics about depression, drug addiction and recovery.

With disarming honesty, songs like “Blood Eagle,” “Pushin’ The Needle,” and first single “Pony,” the listener can hear and almost experience the tumble into depression and other struggles that Sneddon faced as they frequently reveal themselves in the tone and lyrical content of the record.

Edge Of Free almost didn’t happen. The band’s story dates back several years to when Sneddon and Hussey met in Los Angeles. “We began writing together and performing around L.A.” explains Hussey. “Acoustic music primarily, a blend of rock, Celtic, mystic, dark, reckless, nearly free. We burned out on living in Los Angeles and decided we needed to find a new home where we could spread our wings without clocking the person next to us. I moved everything I owned to Nashville in a Mazda RX-7. Starting over, we worked up new songs and played acoustic duo sets while trying to build a band. Unfortunately, depression got Scott by the throat and that chokehold combined with the steel grey Nashville winter broke us. He left his shit and flew back to L.A., we were done.”

“I broke up with her after she nearly killed me a few times and said I’d never go back [she being music]," explains Sneddon. “I did go back….of course, we always do.”

Edge Of Free finally came together again when Sneddon decided to visit Nashville. “The year I lived there when we originally moved from L.A., I experienced some very rough personal times,” states Sneddon. “It was lonely, stark, alcoholic, and also when and where I started to find myself as a musician (singer, songwriter, and guitar player). It was during this year in Nashville that John and I settled into this pattern of me writing vocals (melodies and lyrics) over his guitar ideas. I wrote music on my own also, but I just preferred writing vocals to something outside of myself. After writing and playing again on my own, I knew I needed to visit the place that transformed me and opened the doors emotionally and see if the memories were remotely true. I also wanted to see John because we’d become close again. While visiting John we played through some of the songs we wrote from that year in Nashville - songs we had played live, but hadn’t played together in a really long time. My voice had changed. Singing had become a necessity, not something to practice or study or protect, but something to travel with, to take me to a different state of mind and completely let go of reality. So…he thought I sounded pretty good, and I was pretty damn surprised that when he played those songs they just felt right and the feeling and groove were elevating!”

 
Sneddon and Hussey realized that they were not done making music together. Mourning the loss of the sound they had created, they started writing again. “It was long nights writing, recording, and refining musical ideas, sending them to Scott and hearing them come back across the ether with melodies, lyrics, and harmonies,” states Hussey. The two went into deep writing mode and put together a new catalog of songs. Most of the writing was done long distance with Hussey sending Sneddon acoustic ideas. “John would write and record all of the guitars and send me the track,” says Sneddon. “I would download the track and run the song through my head while mountain biking every day. I flew to Nashville in December 2014 and we demoed 3 songs at John’s home studio. We lived with those and decided we had to take it all the way.”

“We worked quite a bit of the guitars and vocals out before going into the studio,” states Hussey. “Once we had shaped the musical lines, arrangements and lyrics, we found players to track and complete the band."

 
"We recognized the need for the right producer to help complete our sound. Our music made its way to Toby, whose name was quite familiar to me, and an email exchange was followed by a two-hour phone call during which I connected intensely with Toby! I came away knowing he was the right guy, not to mention his work on Alice In Chains’ Jar of Flies,” recalls Sneddon.

“On this record I composed all the music and Scott wrote all the melodies and lyrics,” explains Hussey. "Toby made some adjustments in the rhythm section that brought out the best groove under the guitar riffs - the collaboration has been killer!”

The debut album, Edge of Free, features 8 songs from the whirlwind of writing, refining, rewriting and recording in 2016. “We have been through some heavy shit together,” says Hussey. “Drug addiction, divorce, near-death experiences, and finally the completion of our first record.”

The duality of the Earth through the contralateral mind is the nexus where beauty and tragedy can exist side by side. These songs are the journey and the process of arriving on the Edge Of Free.