Afton

Over the course of 13 mind-melding minutes, the Richmond, Virginia outfit Afton – headed up by multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Gray Griggs – transports the listener through a colorful rock landscape with their new song “Samsaric Sacrifice.” The song, mastered by the Grammy-winning Hans DeKline (U2, Pixies), is a psychedelic epic that evokes the hazy rock of the ‘70s and modern-day psych innovators like Tame Impala. Yet no one genre can encapsulate what “Samsaric Sacrifice” achieves. By the end of the song, Griggs sounds like he’s writing a score for a hallucinatory montage filmed by Terrence Malick. An album in miniature, “Samsaric Sacrifice” takes the listener on a journey that spans pulse-pounding rock, meditative tranquility, and a soaring, string-backed coda.

Afton’s multi-generic aptitude comes from Griggs’ background and the places he grew up. He was born in rural Florida but then moved to one of the great hubs of American music: Athens, Georgia. Looking back on his youth in Athens, Griggs realizes just how lucky he was: “Having grown up in Athens, where music is woven into the fabric of the culture, there are an incredible amount of bands, musicians, and composers that are either from there or have lived there, that all provided inspiration for me. You get spoiled with the level at which the bands are playing.” The talent of his local musicians clearly rubbed off. “Samsaric Sacrifice” is a product of a life spent listening to music without boundaries. Griggs also heeds no boundaries when it comes to instrumentation, playing every instrument on the bustling track.

The musical listening habits of Griggs mirror the fluidity with which “Samsaric Sacrifice” segues between varying sonic landscapes. “In the mornings,” he says, “I lean towards concert or classical music. The afternoons are usually 60's / 70's psych rock or acoustic hippy music, whereas the evenings are Krautrock, 50's / 60's jazz, or experimental noise records. Late night is reserved for Eno or Philip Glass.” The journey of “Samsaric Sacrifice” is similarly far-reaching. You could call “Samsaric Sacrifice” proggy, but in reality it’s progressive in the truest sense of the word: never content to stay in one place.

The musical voyage of “Samsaric Sacrifice” got its start from Griggs’ global travel. Early portions of the track came from a vacation to Portugal, where Griggs and his girlfriend stayed right on the water in Lisbon. After spending their days walking around on foot, they would return in a daze to their waterfront home. “That delirious, dream-like state allows you to write freely and unconsciously. It’s like meditation,” Griggs says. “Samsaric Sacrifice” poetically recounts a train ride on this trip from Lisbon to Porto: “Blanket over our heads, we ride / A north bound train on the coastal side / When the oceans break, twist against the trees / The cloth blinds sway their tired green.” Griggs also incorporated the verdant environs of the Blue Ridge Mountains near his Richmond home into the “Samsaric Sacrifice” narrative, making the song geographically and musically transcontinental.

Yet the most powerful component of “Samsaric Sacrifice” is its spiritual openness. The song’s title points to Buddhist philosophy, which along with other Eastern philosophy served as an important influence on Griggs in his songwriting. The time of “Samsaric Sacrifice”’s composition coincided with “heavy personal struggles” for Griggs, and in the lyrics you can hear him working through a vexing spiritual crisis through his nameless protagonist. The song intermixes physical struggles like substance abuse with personal struggles like the inability to reckon with one’s former life.

The message of “Samsaric Sacrifice,” in the end, is one of hope. For Griggs, “The song is about the struggles that connect us all, dealing with the past, being able to look at yourself in the mirror. You hope the music is a reminder to sit in the moment, make time for yourself, and be kind. We all have struggles and are doing the best we can to move forward.”

“Samsaric Sacrifice” is set for a spring 2020 release. The band will be play festivals throughout the United States throughout the coming year.