Anchor & Braille

Anchor & Braille is the acoustic side project of Anberlin's lead singer Stephen Christian with collaboration from Aaron Marsh of Copeland. While originally a joint venture between Christian and Marsh, Marsh has since removed his name from the project to focus on Copeland. Anchor & Braille was conceived when Christian realized that he had written many songs that he knew Anberlin could never use. The songs were said to have a different feel from Anberlin's material and the lyrics were topics that he felt more personal, which he was not ready at that time to share on a mass platform.[1] The band currently has the entire album streaming on their MySpace page before their album releases on August 4th. The official website also has the demo version of "Sleep" (or "When We Die"). The songs "Wedding/Funeral," "Sheet Music" (Which has been mislabelled as 'When We Die (Sleep)") and a demo of "Mary Agnosia" are featured on their PureVolume. A poetic art-loop piece called "16 Conversations" was also on the band's MySpace page for a short while. On January 23, 2007, a 7" vinyl with two songs on it, "Sound Asleep" and "Wedding / Funeral", was released online.[2] Anchor & Braille's initial output greatly contrasted with Christian's primary band, relying on toned-down instruments such as keyboards, pianos, and acoustic guitars. However, the 2009 album will utilize a full band, with all songs written by Christian but produced and augmented with additional instrumentation by Marsh afterward. Though Marsh initially stated he would not be touring with Anchor & Braille so as to focus primarily on Copeland, it has since been revealed that the two acts will be touring together over the summer anyway. Anchor & Braille will join Copeland's US tour in July with Sherwood, Meese and Barcelona,[3] before Christian heads to Australia for a tour with Anberlin in August. The first single, "Still Sleeping", from the bands debut album is available now on iTunes. It was also featured on the compilation album Punk the Clock, Volume Three. The upcoming debut album has been entitled Felt. It was produced by Aaron Marsh from Copeland and is set for release on August 4, 2009.