A Day Without Love: Finding Peace in Suffering.

Text by Joseph Juhase. Portraits by Ryan Gheraty. Show pictures by G.W. Miller III.

Brian Walker’s debut A Day Without Love LP, Solace, is a very personal project that deals with the West Oak Lane native’s experiences with depression, addiction and past relationships.

The album has two big halves, Walker states as he sits in an Old City coffee shop sipping an iced, black coffee and wearing a Kississippi shirt. The first half is about all the things that make him mad.

“I was pissed off at the punk scene,” he says. “I had lost friends. I lost my job and was unemployed, gigging to get by and doing freelance work. I was also in debt.”

He leans in before going on to describe the second half.

“I want people to know that it’s okay to be angry,” he continues. “You can find peace in the suffering that you have.”

A Day Without Love references a poem Walker wrote for a class after witnessing an incident of spousal abuse. Since 2012, A Day Without Love has been releasing content at a healthy pace, with multiple collaborators. Now, Walker is ready to take the next step with the release of the new LP.

“With the exception of one song, Solace was written in 2015,” he says. “It’s the culmination of feelings and thoughts that were buried deep inside of me.”

Jake Detwiler, who mixed and produced Solace at the now defunct Fresh Produce Studios, met Walker in the Keswick area during an open mic night. He describes Walker as a prolific writer, and Detwiler’s enthusiasm for A Day Without Love is palpable.

“I want to help people bring good records into the world,” Detwiler says of the process.

Even with Detwiler in his corner, Walker admits that recording Solace, which took place over the course of a week, was both smooth and stressful.

“People would come into the studio and say, ‘It smells like a man cave in here,’” he says. “We had been living off Chinese food and lettuce.”

Walker wrote 60 songs for the record but only 15 were ultimately chosen. Walker’s own grandmother appears on the album in a segment where she offers her view on racism.

“I was cleaning the room with my grandmother.” Walker shares. “We had talked for about 12 to 16 minutes. She started going on about different things in her life and I just turned on the recorder. If you listen, you can hear the air conditioning in the background.”

Bringing people together through music has always fascinated Walker. When A Day Without Love played SXSW, things began to fall into place.

“I went in expecting barbeque and rock and roll and instead had a rebirth,” Walker recalls. “It didn’t feel like a competition between musicians. I really felt the camaraderie from other artists of different genres.”

Walker is no stranger to camaraderie, as he frequently interacts with fans on social media. He often shares his own experiences – the good, the bad, the difficult. Living with depression, Walker is very vocal about sharing his experiences with others. He frequently hands out information about Erika’s Lighthouse, an organization that aims to educate communities about teen depression, at his shows.

And with the new LP, Walker aims to speak about himself while talking to others.

“I wanted people to act on treating each other better,” Walker explains. “I want Solace to be selfless, keep pain alive and give more than take.”