New Found Glory Share New Acoustic/Live Unplugged Album Make The Most of It Amidst Chad Gilbert's Cancer Diagnoses (Revelation Records)
New Found Glory have learned, with all their success, that everything can, also, get upended in the blink of an eye. In December 2021, fresh off the celebratory Pop-punk's Still Not Dead Tour in support of their tenth album, Forever + Ever x Infinity, guitarist and founding member Chad Gilbert was found unresponsive in his bed at home, rushed to a local hospital, and diagnosed with an eight-inch cancerous tumor. Hospital stays, surgery, and a long road to recovery followed—but, in typical New Found Glory fashion, so did the songs. The band's new album, Make The Most of It—their twelfth overall, first acoustic, and first for Revelation Records—tackles the last year head-on with their most emotional and cathartic collection of songs to date. Written in the wake of Gilbert's cancer diagnosis and mixed by Mark Trombino (blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, Midtown,) Make The Most of It is a rumination on what it means to grieve, to live, and to approach every day with appreciation and a sense of fulfillment.
There's gratitude for the CPR Gilbert's wife heroically performed on him within "Mouth to Mouth," for the doctors who got him back on the road in time to celebrate the landmark 20th anniversary of NFG's Sticks & Stones across "Get Me Home," and for the opportunity to still wake up every day in this beautiful, messy, heart-breaking world as heard on "Kiss The Floor." "Even though the songs are sadder, they're still hopeful," Gilbert says. "You hear so much online about mental health and fear and anxiety. I feel proud that we can release an album with joy and honesty in a way that will, hopefully, make people less fearful of life. A lot of times, we punish ourselves for things that might never happen. I'm going through something that did happen, but doing it with hope and joy and a greater appreciation." Gilbert and his bandmates—vocalist Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka, and drummer Cyrus Bolooki—are all husbands and fathers, and as Punk/Emo elders (though still "able" to "incite" a circle pit with "ease,") Make The Most of It finds the quartet contemplating the uncertain future, what they hope their loved ones will hang on to, and how they'll be remembered.
It can all be heard across Make The Most of It's centerpiece, "Watch The Lilies Grow," dedicated to Gilbert's daughter, Lily. It's quite argubaly the most poignant New Found Glory song ever. Just as fan favorites, like "Sonny" and "When I Die" were there to help guide audiences through life's valleys decades ago, songs like "Dream Born Again" and "More Than Enough" speak to listeners with the same sense of understanding, compassion, and community that's kept New Found Glory such a resonant and beloved mainstay in Punk Rock. "I didn't want this to be the "cancer record" originally," Gilbert admits, noting his cancer returned in 2022 with additional battles still ahead. "But when we went on tour and people started hearing the story and connecting to it, I gave up on trying to control the narrative. Not all bands are dealt these cards, but we were. Let's take these songs and help the disease get awareness and raise money for a cause that's working on education and research for my rare cancer." It's worth noting that a percentage of proceeds raised from the sale of Make The Most of It will go to The Pheo Para Alliance, the longest-standing Internationally-recognized leader in advocacy for and awareness of pheochromocytoma.
In addition to seven originals, Make The Most of It, which, also, features live versions of three to seven (depending on format) stripped down New Found Glory classics recorded in Nashville in 2022 during the band's NFG Unplugged Total Request Livestream & Concert. "We love the opportunity to get inspired and still try to push ourselves toward something new," Gilbert says. "But at the same time, we're not too cool to disown where we came from. I feel like our music isn't ours anymore. New Found Glory, all those old records, they belong to our fans. Even when I had to miss shows because of my treatment, it was still New Found Glory because of the connection between us and our fans. It's them. It's us. It's all of it together." I must say, getting my mom's own cancer diagnosis just yesterday, Make The Most of It hits differently than it did just days ago this past weekend. Honestly, through these fairly grim, uncertain times, it's nice to have some releaxing hopeful music to help soundtrack all this calamity. Thank you to Chad Gilbert and New Found Glory for doing this for all of us! New Found Glory will be heading out on the Make The Most of It Acoustic Tour 2023 this winter accompanied by Leanna Firestone and "My Friends Over Brew" coffee from Dark Horse Coffee Roasters. New Found Glory's Make The Most of It is now available in a multitude of formats and packages directly from Revelation Records.
