Ferocious Designs, the music project of central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley, has released the single and video for “Now or Never,” with proceeds from downloads/streams of the track to be donated to gun-violence prevention efforts.
“This track has gone through several iterations since I recorded the initial idea as a voice memo on my phone last year,” said Kelley. “Musically, it started out as a Scritti Politti-type pop song, but the lyrics turned it into an urgent call to action to oppose the increasingly fascist threats to this nation’s democracy.
“The renewed calls for action on common-sense gun-control and gun-violence-prevention legislation in the wake of the horrific acts committed in Uvalde, Buffalo and so many other places made it an easy decision for me to release it now as a way to help out in any small way I can,” added Kelley.
Proceeds from downloads/streams of “Now or Never” will be donated to Everytown For Gun Safety, according to Kelley. Social media posts promoting the song will also urge people to donate to the organization.
The accompanying DIY music video was done in the confines of Kelley’s home studio with green screen effects running stock video footage from Videezy.com. “There’s so much static and noise when it comes to gun-control efforts,” said Kelley. “It’s just me trying to cut through all that to say, ‘Enough is enough.’
“The Second Amendment is not absolute and there is strong evidence to believe it was written with a great deal of government regulation in mind,” said Kelley. “You have the ‘well-regulated’ part right out of the gate. Who regulates things? The government. The capitalized ‘Militia’ is referenced as an entity under congressional oversight in other sections of the Constitution. These so-called originalists or 2A absolutionists are delusional and dangerously wrong.”
“Now or Never” will also appear on the album Looking for the Light, which Ferocious Designs plans to release later this year.
"Now or Never" features Music and lyrics by Brian Kelley with Brian on vocals, keyboards, guitars and other instrumentation. Video footage courtesy of Videezy.com
Ferocious Designs is the DIY music project of central New Jersey-based songwriter Brian Kelley. Although he has spent most of the past 30-plus years as a songwriting hobbyist, Kelley is not a complete stranger to the New Jersey music scene. He is a longtime collaborator with singer-songwriter Christian Beach, spending time with him during the late 1980s and early 90s in a band that played the much-loved and long-gone Green Parrot Rock Club in Neptune, NJ, multiple times. Kelley has played keyboards, accordion and percussion in Beach's backing band since 2007, and has recorded with him as well. The project name is borrowed from the lyrics of “Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven)” by Marillion. The debut, five-song EP from Ferocious Designs, A Matter of Time, was released on July 16, 2021. That same day, the project’s debut single, “Lay It on the Line,” was named Makin Waves Song of the Week by longtime New Jersey music journalist Bob Makin.
Photo by Brian Kelley
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