Back in 2022 when we were on our first really extensive tour with Cold (3/29/22-5/15/22) we unexpectedly ran into a lot of adversity. On the third show into this month and a half long tour I completely blew my voice out, worse than I ever had in previous history. I was terrified, and this terror slowly mutated into shame I felt for letting my band down every night. This created a domino effect in every way possible. My voice would heal a little bit, and then before I knew it I would blow it out again, get sick, then heal a bit, blow it out, get sick, over, and over, etc, etc, for the ENTIRE tour. Needless to say, we weren't doing very well. Every day there was a possibility that we would be going home. However, I was incredibly stubborn, and felt like it was super important for us to finish this no matter what. I also felt very strongly that we would start to do better as the tour went along. This way of thinking caused dividing lines in our band. Arguments were becoming more and more frequent between the four of us, and I sadly watched as it looked like my band was truly falling apart. On 4/21 at The House Of Blues in Anaheim, California, we played what would be our final show with our then drummer Steve Martin. Steve was a gigantic part of the band and our brotherhood. I cherish the time that the four of us had together. Especially during the making of "Clear", where both Steve, and our original bass player John Husosky's influence and contributions cannot be overstated. But he was done with the tour, and we had a show the next day. Thankfully Cold's drummer Tony Kruszka said he would try to learn the songs for our show the following day. I don't know how he did it, but with zero rehearsal we got on stage with Tony in front of a packed house at Brick by Brick in San Diego, and it was like we had been playing together for 10 years (we asked him to officially join us full time quickly thereafter) It was a truly triumphant moment for the band, as we knew we weren't breaking up, and that the tour would go on. Tony was already doing an hour and 15 minutes with Cold every night, and then he was trying to do 45 minutes with us as well, It was a lot for anyone to do every single night for a month, and it was a lot of music to learn in such a short period of time. Tony suggested that I should try the song "Shoreline/Sky" by myself. He was having trouble learning it, and also thought it would be a cool moment in the set. I was all for it, but it was written to be this rock song. The music to Shoreline was written in tandem with Steve, John, Angelo, and myself. It was never even played on an acoustic guitar before. So, in the middle of our set I tried it out. I told the story of what the song was about, (It was about watching my stepfather create a life for my now deceased mother over the course of 18 years, and just how quickly life could be so unfairly snatched away from us) It was the first time during the entire tour that people seemed to actually stop and listen. After the band returned to the stage we ripped through the remainder of our set to a truly engaged audience. That's when the tour started to completely turn around for us. We implemented this version of "Shoreline/Sky' into every performance for the remainder of the tour, and we even still play it that way 2 years later. It developed a life of its own, and It's become one of the most requested songs for us to play. We had been told repeatedly that we should record a secondary version of the track, but it never really got through to us until our good friend Dimitry Karpunin randomly texted me a few weeks back saying we should really record that version of it. So that's what we did. If you've made it this far I applaud your patience, and must reinforce how grateful I am to be able to deliver this version of the song to you today. This song in both forms has always been intended for anyone dealing with loss of a loved one. I hope in a strange way it could offer some form of healing to you today. From myself, Tony, Angelo, Mark, and Ryan - Thank you for sticking it out with us. Thank you for your continued support. We have a lot more on the horizon for University Drive, and many more songs to come. We hope you enjoy this.



Sincerely,



-Ed Cuozzo/University Drive