The New Collisions Interview with Scott Guild

by Adam Warner

In the first half of 2009, Boston’s The New Collisions went from an unknown club band to one of the northeast’s hottest acts. Fresh off a national tour with The B-52s and Blondie, they geared up for the release of their debut EP, “Invisible Embraces,” on November 17, 2009.  Greg Hawkes, the legendary keyboard player from The Cars, happened to catch one of the band’s first shows. Over the spring, he worked with the band and with platinum-selling producer Anthony Resta (Duran Duran, Missing Persons), another early fan. Influences from the New Wave explosion of ’77-’83, plus the early 60s of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson, meet a modern, dancey, intense sound. There are powerful female vocals,  jagged analog synth, sweeping harmonies, catchy dance rhythms, and a message of lost youth in a world falling apart.

Suddenly a three-month-old band was selling out large clubs in Boston. The first tracks garnered full pages in The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, and The Boston Herald, and wild praise from every blog tuned in to the local scene.  It wasn’t long before the phone rang, with an offer to go on tour in the summer of 2009: The B-52s had chosen The New Collisions as their support act. Soon another offer came: Blondie–the band’s number one influence–asked The New Collisions to be their direct support.

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