Since their inception, Ships Have Sailed have always struck a balance between exuberant pop and substantial alternative rock. Their debut EP ‘Someday’ (2014) was well received throughout the US, Canada and the UK, catalyzing a Northeastern US tour and landing the band showcases at SXSW, CMJ Music Marathon, Canadian Music Week, & NAMM in 2015. They took home accolades from ISC and Unsigned Only that same year, furthering the band’s impetus for the release of their first full length album, ‘Moodswings’. The eleven song studio effort earned glowing reviews from Blackbook, Wild Honey Pie, and The 405, again receiving notice from ISC, Unsigned Only and The John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and spawned a sister release ‘Re: MIX’, whose tropical house remixes seemed in perfect step with the evolving music climate.

An invigorated 2016 began with Ships Have Sailed’s acoustic EP, ‘Whispers’. The band spent the summer touring the West coast and set out on an East coast tour in late fall. In November, ‘Drive’ received Best Alternative Song at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, a massive feat and a testament to the group’s ability to translate their own momentum into a pulsing, universal anthem about love, longevity and forward motion. Along with the success and progress achieved over the past year, for which they have been unwaveringly grateful, Ships Have Sailed also saw the inherent challenges of unexpected events and unpredictable variables of their continuing journey.

Coming off the road on the final leg of their 2016 tour cycle, and in a particularly reflective and somewhat exhausted moment, a new idea was born.

In his own words, the group’s spearhead, songwriter and producer, Will Carpenter says “[In] a moment that was both happy and sad, reflective and hopeful, satisfied but still hungry, I tried to muster up the words to convey the mix of emotions that this year had evoked. At first it was a thoughtful process, but once the grain of the idea took shape, the music just kind of poured out…and it was incredibly cathartic.”

The result will be heard in the band’s new single, ‘Up’, which Carpenter sees as a call “to those of us with a dream that, however long the odds, is something we’re willing to fight for.”