Exiled by Lyme Disease, Ben Kyle Seeks Return to Modern Life With New Romantica Release on 6/8

Courtesy: September Gurl

Listen to First Single, "Love in the Winter," here
2 May 2018 (Press Release) - In a premonition of what was to come, Ben Kyle, Romantica's songwriter and frontman, sang this prescription on Romantica’s 2017 Shadowlands release. He understood his body and mind were being undermined - but he didn’t know it was Lyme disease or that it would completely rearrange life as he knew it for the better part of 2 years. 

In a letter to fans he writes (read full letter here);
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Dear Friends,  

“What do we have, that we have not been given? / What do we have, that we can hold on to? / All of this life, is gift that we’re living / All of this love, was given to you”

When I wrote these words 3 years ago I had no idea I was about to lose so much. My home, my studio, my work place, the ability to be present to my family and friends, the ability to have thoughts (quite literally). The neurological and immune implications of a 2 year battle with what turned out to be (most significantly) Lyme disease, compiled to the point where I felt completely exiled from normal life. I couldn’t even touch my phone or my laptop (where all my work and music is) without my hands and arms getting painfully sore. I couldn’t instagram, facebook, or respond to emails from family and friends. My neuro-immune system was so sensitized I couldn’t walk into any building that didn’t have pristine air quality without my head going completely blank. My body ached from the inside out. I had no energy. My thoughts would stop and then jump around as though my brain were in short-circuit. I lost the ability to calculate numbers, to imagine, to create, and many times even the ability to think at all. I couldn’t be present in any situation or conversation. There was a permanent static in my brain, pressing in and dragging down on my biology and attention. Many times I felt like I was on the edge of insanity, and in the darkest hours I would lay in bed trying to remember how many children I had and what their names were. It was the deepest darkest valley I have ever walked.

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In the face of such agony it’s hard to know the why and the what for? And how and why do we keep going? How do we press through? There are no simple answers. Only in living do we become. Only in experience do we know. 

I don’t know why I have lost nearly everything, but I do know that in the very same transaction, I have received so much. 

I don’t write to you from a place of wholeness. In fact, I struggle to write to you, even now, through an undermined and impaired cognition. There is a beautiful way to go. But O my God, have I found deep healing and the healing surely continues. And coming out on the other side of the worst of this most difficult journey I must tell you that I am so grateful for every thought and smile and song and child and peace and presence that has been given back to me. As I told Andrea Swenson at The Current: “It got to the point with the illness where I realized that I may not be able to play again. I may have to let everything go. It’s a really really hard place to be where you feel that life is just slipping away from you. But I think I got to the place where I was able to let go and say that’s ok. I let go. I surrender. And I receive everything that I’ve ever been given and everything that I will be given as a gift. And so now I feel like everything I have is something that’s really given back to me. It does feel like a resurrection.”

Another of these incredible gifts is my children. I have 5, and their names are Ana, Roy, Ivan, Isla and Asher. I can now be present with them - most of the time - and how beautiful that is - just to be present. Another gift is the music and the songs that I’ve been given. I’ve been given many songs in my life and some have been all but forgotten, but I’ve recently discovered in some of those neglected tracks, moments of the real and the beautiful that need to be remembered and shared. And so in celebration of this incredible journey back to health and on to wholeness, I’ve put together a collection of some ‘forgotten songs’ for a new album that we’re calling Romantica - Outlaws. 

As I reflect on this deep dark valley and the sense of exile that I felt and sometimes continue to feel, I think it’s interesting that these songs felt like outlaws too. Outlaws only from the Romantica catalog of the past 10 years, but I’ve found there is a gift in the path of the exile or the outlaw if that way can become a doorway to a deeper experience of reality. If we can somehow learn to see or feel more deeply or clearly from that ‘helpless’ point of view.  Perhaps this is the gift in getting sick, really sick, before we get better. Almost dead, before we truly touch life. To lose nearly everything before it is all given back to you. Because when you’ve been this close to death, the smallest glimpse of life returning quickly becomes mind-blowingly magnificent. The simplest moment of real presence becomes the most wonderfully beautiful miracle.  I hope you enjoy these songs in celebration of transformation.

Yours in healing,
Ben Kyle
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Romantica // Outlaws will be released on June 8, 2018 and features 10 unreleased songs beloved by the band and fans, that were outlawed from previous Romantica recordings, including the singles "Love in the Winter", "Dear Caroline" and crowd favorite "Baby Killed Bobby", as well as singular versions of Cohen’s "Hallelujah", the Beatles’ "Something" and a cameo appearance with Ryan Adams. 

This collection of songs gathered from recording sessions and live shows over the past 10 years, and featuring contributions from longtime collaborators Jessy Greene, Eric Heywood, Carrie Rodriguez and Alex Oana was curated and compiled by Kyle during his 2 year recovery from lyme-disease. 

Kyle reflects: "This is the best of the rest. These are all songs that we wish would have seen the light of day at one time or another but never did - for one reason or another.  The significant battle for my health gave me the gift of reflecting deeply on our past and shaping a new vision for our future. Creative imagination begins in memory and so we begin our brave new era with a nod to the nuggets of our almost forgotten past.”

ROMANTICA // OUTLAWS
1. Love in the Winter (feat. Eric Heywood & Carrie Rodriguez)
2. Dear Caroline  (featuring Joe Savage)
3. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen. feat. Joe Savage)
4. Do Go Gently
5. Lost in the Cosmos 
6. Something (George Harrison.)
7. Listen to your Soul 
8. Hold it Together 
9. Baby Killed Bobby (Featuring Jessy Greene)
10. The Dark (feat. Ryan Adams). (Live at the State Theater in Minneapolis, MN.)

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