Unlocked: Download “I’ll Miss You” from Anthony Green’s Young Legs

A friend of renowned Doylestown-native musician Anthony Green asked him to write a song about someone close to him who had recently died.

Green, the frontman for spacey rock outfit Circa Survive who has also fostered a burgeoning solo career, had never really written songs from another person’s perspective. The experience forced him to tell stories, capture emotions and convey feelings through his music in a whole different way.

That song, titled “I’ll Miss You,” became the impetus for Green’s third solo album, Young Legs, which is out today on his own label, Moshtradamus Records. Green went on to write each song on the record about something inspiring he found within the people around him, and the experiences they were going through.

“It’s such tricky science. I love playing with it,” Green says of songwriting. “For a long time, I think I looked at it very narrowly and linear. I went in and I just sang over the music that I heard. I drew emotion from the sound of the music, and wasn’t as involved in the center of it until now, until I started doing fuller stuff, until I started writing my own songs and writing my own music and just really playing around with the science of songwriting.”

Green blends a laundry list of influences into his solo material. Because of this, Young Legs leaps from rock riffs to blues grooves to classical flourishes with the drop of a hat (listen here via Soundcloud). “I’ll Miss You” stands out as the album’s sad, straightforward and slowly building ballad, and is indicative of the mature, piano-driven sound Green was going for with the album.

He was urged to record “I’ll Miss You” by Keith Goodwin, frontman for Philly-based folkies Good Old War. The group doubles as Green’s collaborative back-up band both in the studio and on the road.

“He was like, ‘Dude it’s amazing. I really love it and I hear all of this cool stuff happening in it,’” Green recalls of the conversation with Goodwin. “I listened to it after Keith had said that, and was like, ‘Wow, this really is kind of a magical song. It could be beautiful.’ That song is really what kind of gave me the idea to start putting all of these songs together.”

Local fans will have the opportunity to see Green and his band perform when the Young Legs tour comes to Union Transfer on December 14th with support from Dave Davidson and Psychic Babble.

Check back all this week for more about the release of Young Legs as we highlight the album in our Unlocked series – which showcases new and significant albums from Philadelphia area artists – with a review, video, interview and more. Below, download “I’ll Miss You,” and check back tomorrow for a review of the album.