Wilkes-Barre guitarist Aaron Fink joins Los Angeles rockers Earshot, releases new single ‘Uninvited’
From a press release:
Chart-topping hard rock band Earshot, who are best known for such hits as “Get Away,” “Headstrong,” and “Wait,” released their first single in five years today, reinventing the Grammy Award-winning Alanis Morissette hit “Uninvited.”
This dark and hard-driving version of the 1990s classic features the Los Angeles quintet’s new lineup that includes two Northeastern Pennsylvania musicians – Aaron Fink, best known as the founding guitarist of Wilkes-Barre rock bands Breaking Benjamin and Lifer, and bassist John Novak, who was the vocalist/guitarist of Wilkes-Barre alternative rockers Down to Six and currently plays in Fink’s solo band.
According to Earshot lead vocalist and guitarist Wil Martin, the band had always revered this song for its haunting sound and moving melodies but were recently inspired to record the track “for the fans as a way to hold them over until the new EP is finished.”
“We are currently working on a new EP, which we hope to release sometime this year,” Martin said. “But in the meantime, we wanted to surprise fans with an unexpected cover. When Aaron suggested recreating ‘Uninvited,’ we knew it was the perfect opportunity to pay homage to one of our favorite artists while putting our own mark on the song.”
Morissette originally released “Uninvited” as a single from the “City of Angels” soundtrack in 1998; it hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart and garnered two Grammy Awards. Fink said that the song received the full Earshot treatment by “taking her beautifully-written song and twisting it up, accentuating the quiet and the bombast, with a healthy dose of heaviness.”
Martin and Fink, who met when Earshot and Breaking Benjamin played shows together years ago and have since stayed in touch, both produced Earshot’s version of “Uninvited.” Mixed by Grammy-nominated mixer Jesse Ray Ernster (Kanye West, Andy Grammer, Umi), the song was mastered by Rob Brill (Paul McCartney, Shinedown, Dokken) and engineered by Lizzy Ostro at The Lair Recording Studio in Los Angeles, California and Jim “Pinky” Beeman (Cheap Trick) at Big3 Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The band, which is also comprised of guitarist Andy Stafford and drummer Mike Sylvia, is currently recording their forthcoming EP, which will be their fifth studio release since forming in 1999. Their first two albums featured songs charting in the Billboard Top 200, with their debut single “Get Away” reaching No. 4 on the U.S. Active Rock radio charts and staying in the Top 100 for over 64 weeks. The group took a hiatus and reemerged with their independently-released EP “Aftermath” in 2015.
Fink, the former lead guitarist of multi-platinum-selling Hollywood Records artists Breaking Benjamin, has written and recorded four solo albums in four years: “Wolves & Butterflies,” “Galaxies,” “Heavy Feathers,” and “Saint Sylvania.” He is currently a producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, and looks onward to adding to an already extensive rock catalog.
During his tenure in Breaking Benjamin, the band had certified sales of over six million albums, six million singles, and performed thousands of shows in the United States and Canada’s largest concert venues and festivals. They also had multiple No. 1s on rock radio, and their platinum album “Dear Agony” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. At the time, Breaking Benjamin appeared on a slew of late-night talk shows hosted by Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Ferguson, Craig Kilborn, and Carson Daly. In the late 2000s, Fink had a brief run in the nationally acclaimed, A&M-signed roots rock band The Badlees, which ultimately led to him joining singer/songwriter Bret Alexander’s current band, Gentleman East.
Fink is also a founding member of Wilkes-Barre nu metal band Lifer (originally Strangers with Candy), who won MTV’s Ultimate Cover Band Contest in 2000 and went on to have Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson produce their debut record on Universal/Republic Records. Lifer also had their song “Breathless” featured on the RIAA gold-certified soundtrack for “The Scorpion King” and, more recently, the band reunited in 2018 and released their first new song in 18 years, “The Start of Something Else,” on March 31, 2020.
Formed in 1999 with singer Wil Martin collaborating with original bassist Guy Couturier, drummer Dieter Hartman, and guitarist Scott Kohler, the Los Angeles-based heavy modern rock outfit Earshot released their debut album, “Letting Go” (produced by David Kahne and mixed by Andy Wallace), in 2002 on Warner Bros. Records. Guitarist Mike Callahan and replacement bassist Johnny Sprague joined the band shortly after the album was completed.
During months of extensive touring with the likes of Hoobastank, Shinedown, Staind, Kid Rock, and Stone Temple Pilots, their debut single, “Get Away,” reached No. 4 on the U.S. Active Rock radio charts and stayed in the Top 100 for over 64 weeks, while “Headstrong” was featured on the “Queen of the Damned” soundtrack alongside Disturbed, Deftones, and Marilyn Manson.
In 2003, Earshot returned to the studio to begin work on their second album, “Two,” produced by Johnny K., mixed by Rich Costey, and released on Warner Bros. Records in 2004. Their breakout single “Wait” reached No. 9 on U.S. Active Rock radio charts while also being featured on the hugely successful “Madden NFL 2005” and “MX vs. ATV Unleashed” video game soundtracks.
After parting ways with Warner Bros. Records in 2005, Earshot signed with Indegoot/Fontana/Universal Recordings in 2007 and began work on their third album, “The Silver Lining,” produced by Brian Garcia and Wil Martin and mixed by Mike Watts. The album spawned the band’s fifth radio-charting single, “MisSunderstood.”
In 2015, after a long hiatus from the music scene, Earshot independently released their long-awaited fourth studio recording, “Aftermath,” produced by Wil Martin and mixed by Sam Hughes. The five-song mini-LP launched with the release of the EP’s first single, “Now That It’s Over,” and concluded with an intimate rerecorded acoustic performance of “Fall Apart,” previously released on their second and most beloved album, “Two.”
Photo of Aaron Fink by Rich Howells/NEPA Scene
