Anthony Green pulls back the curtain on “From What I Understand”

Anthony Green has shared a new single from his forthcoming Pixie Queen LP, debuting “From What I Understand” on Fuse earlier this week. The Circa Survive frontman has grown a lot over the course of his career and his solo music, especially this new record, reflects that.

The Doylestown native is still writing about his personal experiences and challenges, but these days the central topics are marriage and raising a family. “From What I Understand” pulls the curtain back on Green’s relationship with his wife, taking an honest look at how two people treat each other in the midst of extreme change and stress. Green tells Fuse:

“These songs aren’t just about how my wife and I love each other. They’re about how we hate each other sometimes. We don’t just help each other grow; we’ve held each other back. Love is not one thing all the time. It’s beautiful and it’s wild and it’s free and it’s hard. There’s all these peaks and valleys. It can be creative or destructive. But the only way you’ll ever feel anything remotely like the fairy tale ideas of love is by getting through the suffering…. [‘From What I Understand’] represents a time when in our relationship where we fought a lot and these moments in time didn’t feel good. It was difficult for us to spend any quality time together and having three kids, we were tired all the time. You go through these phases where you don’t see like yourself anymore.”

“From What I Understand” has Green’s signature all over it, from the layered arrangement to his distinctive vocals. And although the lyrics are heartbreaking and combative, the soundscape is sparkling and atmospherically light, sending a message that has been at the core of Green’s work since the days of Circa Survive: if you can work through the challenges and your personal demons, you’ll come out on the other side in a better place.

Pixie Queen, which was produced by Green’s longtime collaborator Will Yip (of Conshohocken’s Studio 4) and features longtime friends Tim Arnold and Keith Goodwin (of Good Old War), will be released September 9th via Yip’s Memory Music. He’ll be taking the album out on the road for the month of September, wrapping up at Union Transfer on October 1st. Tickets and information for the all-ages show can be found here.

Listen to “From What I Understand” over on Fuse, and revisit Pixie Queen lead single “You’ll Be Fine” below.