El Paso Legend Jim Ward’s New Album Is Out & I’m Very Grateful

Jim Ward is an El Paso legend: he's been playing music for over 25 years making some amazing music with At The Drive In, Sparta, Sleepercar, & has released a TON of solo albums. His newest one, Daggers, just dropped today... & I got to interview the legend himself.

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I don't think ANY of us expected to hear new Jim Ward in 2021 so when his first single, "Paper Fish" was released back in April, it was a VERY pleasant surprise. Last month, another single was released "I Got a Secret" featuring musician Shanna Potter & one more single this month, "Foreign Currency" & the video starring Jeni Robbins & Vincent Marcus just dropped this week.

It was extremely welcoming to see Jim staying active this year & it was an even BIGGER shock for me when he said YES to an interview for Q Connected! I was a little nervous (and most definitely star struck) but Jim was very down to earth & a very chill guy talked to. We talked about how Jim was coping after last year's pandemic, an interesting skill he picked up DURING the pandemic, how his restaurant Eloise is doing, & of course a LOT about his new album; some of the musicians featured as well as the background for creating Daggers.

Daggers was written in the timespan of just under 3 weeks but the album is very much a blend of raw emotion, energy & anger from the events of 2020. As Jim stated in our interview, most of the time his solo albums are a departure from the angst of recording with Sparta & tend to be on the softer side. But there's definitely a feeling of Jim going back to his old post-hardcore days (especially if you listen to I Got a Secret, Blink Twice, Polygraph, or Day By Day) & you can really hear Jim's passion & emotion in all 10 of these tracks.

Jim also said that recording this album was his form of therapy: "It was a moment of survival" & that's definitely understandable...after everything that happened last year, we all needed a form of release & mental healing. So I want to give a HUGE thank you to Jim Ward for taking time to record an interview for Q Connected & a most awesome photo.

You can check out Daggers anywhere you stream your music (Spotify, iTunes, etc) & you can get a physical copy on Jim Ward's official website. You can hear the FULL interview with Jim on Q Connected, this Sunday night at 10pm.