For Ben VanderHart, lead singer of Telemonster, the troughs of life started a few years before COVID-19. In the Fall of 2018, VanderHart left a cushy corporate job with a steady income to found Yellow Racket Records and release Telemonster’s most recent full-length album, Introspecter, Pt. 1. Within a year, he was working as a farm hand in North Georgia, then scrubbing toilets as a church janitor, then stuffing envelopes and sending out birthday emails to members of a trucking association. And things only got harder from there.
“Your Life Begins Today” is the outcome of that process. At just under four minutes, this concise pop song is a deliberate effort to find joy and hope in a life that is fraught with disappointment and hardship. Over the last year and a half, it seems like that's something almost everyone can relate to.
lyrics
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
You've been half-asleep half the year
Snoozing life screaming in your ear
Give yourself a break
And give yourself away
Your life begins today
When you wrecked your mother's car
When death was at your arm
Could you feel him there at the door?
Could you feel your grip tighten more?
Wipe your tears away
Life has wiped your slate
Your life begins today
I am in a bend
I am getting sick of only giving to my friends
Living like a sieve and spending all that I can spend
Can we start it over and begin living again?
Begin living again
Oh, begin living again
Begin living again
Oh, begin living again
Oh--
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
Your life begins today
Your life begins today...
credits
released November 4, 2021
Copyright 2021 Yellow Racket Records
Written by Ben VanderHart / ASCAP
Telemonster is:
Ben VanderHart - Vocals, Guitars, Piano, Keyboards/Synths, Programmed Drums
Dave Hess - Vocals, Piano, Keyboards/Synths
Paul Smallman - Vocals, Guitars, Synths
John-Michael Forman - Vocals, Bass Guitar
Josh Barrett - Drums
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Ben VanderHart in Chattanooga, TN
Mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music
Over the last 6 years, the band Telemonster has produced 11 kids and 1 record. These days their music comes from this
particular place in life – a place where you carry toddlers more than guitar cases; where you play hide ’n’ seek more than you play shows; where music is made from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am because everyone else has gone to bed....more
Otherworldly vocals stretch out over hypnotic, driving guitar tracks that swing from noisy to sparkling shoegazers. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 24, 2015