John van deusen - anthem sprinter

Oh sweetest name john van deusen
John van deusen bandcamp
BIO. John Van Deusen creates aggressively honest, thematically rich power pop.

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Formerly the frontman of the rock band The Lonely Forest (2005-2014), John Van Deusen is a singer-songwriter from Anacortes, Washington, now known for his critically-acclaimed 4-part album series "(I Am) Origami," which displays his songwriting about mental health struggles to his spiritual life.

"Put John Van Deusen’s CD, “Yossarian,” into a disc player and you’ll hear polished, melodic songs reminiscent of Matchbox 20 or the piano-driven Ben Folds Five.

It’s hard to believe that the mature songs, intricate piano performances and deep, comforting voice were all produced by a 17-year-old high school student.

The burgeoning talent of Van Deusen, now 18, has been recognized by Experience Music Project, which selected him and his band as finalists in Sound Off, a competition for regional bands aged 21 or younger. Performing as John Van Deusen and the Lonely Forest, the band offers energetic rock ‘n’ roll, moody and complex piano compositions, strong electric guitar work and polished rhythms, poetry, machines and vocals."

-anacortes american
http://www.goanacor

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JOHN VAN DEUSEN

John Van Deusen creates aggressively honest, thematically rich power pop. His style is built on a strange foundation of influences, resulting in an indie rock sound that feels both familiar and curious. The hooks are sticky, but the seemingly straightforward songwriting never dilutes the music's emotional complexity. Intimacy and vulnerability have been always been hallmarks of his songwriting.

Though Van Deusen’s music may be reasonably accessible, he is nonetheless difficult to pin down. His artistic upbringing is rooted in the DIY scene of Anacortes, Washington but equally shaped by his simultaneous love for pop songs with big hooks. Though he sings about his faith, Van Deusen explores issues of doubt, depression and suicide with as much earnestness. The feedback and the noise -- both sonic and emotional -- might not always reach a solid conclusion; it's still always cathartic and gripping.

John Van Deusen is an artist of contradictions. The first seeds of these contradictions were planted in his early career as frontman and primary songwriter for The Lon

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The Paper, Not the Hand

“Free me, break me, fill me up with all your holy water / ‘Cause I’m driving drunk in the night with one headlight.” There’s no hesitation as Marathon Daze, John Van Deusen’s fourth and final installment in his (I Am) Origami album project, begins. The record opens with this line from the song “Oh, Sweetest Name,” an unblinking acknowledgment of depression and the need for deliverance from self. It’s vulnerable, yet lyrically-opaque and accentuated by thudding percussion that roots Van Deusen’s struggle for spiritual surrender into stubborn persistence.

According to the album description on his Bandcamp page, this song is “a prayer. It’s a plea to God to help me be better and healthier and truer than whatever it is I am now as I careen recklessly through this frantic, modern existence. I started with this line because it’s the prayer I pray (in different words) every day of my life. ‘Help me because without You I’m…well, I’m something other than what I want to be; drunk and reckless in my self-propelled chaos.’”

Such tension is a familiar f