TELL are hell-bent on ‘Boiling The Ocean’ just to get their music to you
The fiery Boston alt-rock band lean into a low-end thunder with a Rick Berlin-directed music video about art on the internet on Tuesday, April 15
NOW PLAYING: Watch the ‘Boiling The Ocean’ music video on YouTube
‘Boiling The Ocean’ is the followup to confrontational March single ‘Sweet Proximity’
BOSTON, Mass. [April 15, 2025] – Chances are, anyone reading this press release is doing so on the internet. And the last song they heard was probably off a streamer; the most recent video they watched was likely off a digital platform; and odds are strong that all the day’s communication and interaction was conducted via email, social media, or a messaging workplace. We are all very online, as the saying goes, and TELL are clamoring for a better way, a more human way – especially when it comes to how we consume the music we love.
The gritty Boston alt-rock band addresses the over-crowded internet landscape, the way we communicate, and how those things shape both what we consume and what we exude, through a rumbling new single titled “Boiling The Ocean.”
The follow-up to March’s fiery and anthemic “Sweet Proximity,” this slow-burner companion track with a heavy low-end and atmospheric snarl first arrives via a Rick Berlin-directed music video on Tuesday, April 15, before the streaming release that following Friday. The band are eager to perform the song live – and in-person – when they play The Square Root in Roslindale on May 9, and then Allston’s O’Brien’s Pub alongside Joe Kaplow on June 8.
“This is my ‘fuck the internet’ song, expressing frustration how as creative artists we all have no choice but to use this same medium to get our music out,” says outspoken TELL guitarist and vocalist David Wildman. “In that sense it is kind of a ghetto that is impossible to escape. We’re all on our own trying to figure it out. And while there no longer are record companies exploiting us, there is also no way to make any money because streaming sites like Spotify have pretty much demonetized everything, and the labels that do exist push crap at the highest level. So yeah, we’re saying blow the whole thing up.”
The seeds for what would become “Boiling The Ocean” were planted by Wildman while he was doing some very in-real-life things. He came up with the lyrics, which are both confrontational and pleading, while walking to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts one day to get coffee, and summoned the idea for the percussive tribal verse rhythm after passing by an Indian temple across from where he teaches music in Lowell.
Where “Sweet Proximity” was an alt-rock wrecking ball, attacking the listener with a rocket-fueled bravado that pierced like an icepick, the steady “Boiling The Ocean” is more stealth in its approach. TELL’s sound has always bridged a gap between arena-ready ‘90s-era alternative and the dire post-punk sound of the late-’70s, and while the prior single barreled along with a punk rock ethos and a prog rock mindfulness, “Boiling The Ocean” takes on a new mood, acting as a sort-of personalized plea after the band has finally gotten the attention of the listener.
Its title, “Boiling the Ocean,” is lifted from the business world, a phrase that urges a person, team, or company to do whatever is necessary to get a result, even if the task seems impossible. So as Wildman – joined in TELL by guitarist Jim Foster; bassist Jay Raffi; and drummer Patrick Crann – decries our current conundrum where the internet is paradoxically facilitating and standing in the way of communicating the quartet’s music, he suggests it’s high time, to borrow a common post-punk rallying cry, to just rip it up and start again.
“It's all about the frustrations of connecting in this present environment, because in order to do it, you have to bend yourself to fit the medium,” Wildman adds. “I suppose this goes back to the early days where pop songs had to be 3:30 minutes tops because that's all you could fit on a 45. Now the conditions that form the music are much more complex and on multiple levels, but no less restrictive in their way. Of course no one gives a shit about any of that, and we just want to make a video that catches people's attention with cool images.”
Enter Berlin for that, who agreed with the band on a concept that showed TELL performing live, but with the ocean projected over them, inspired by early Andy Warhol shows with The Velvet Underground. The symbolic gesture enhances not only the visual but the lyrical matter; an all-encompassing body of water can either drown a person or lift a person up, and in the video, TELL, dressed in all-whites as a cohesive unit, deliver “Boiling The Ocean” as found-footage scenes flash across their bodies and faces, the blue glow of the ocean both suffocating and illuminating. Just like the internet itself.
“He made the whole thing relaxing and fun, and we never tried to overthink it,” Wildman says. “With the great work he’s done on his own and other people’s videos, we knew it would turn out great.”
“Boiling The Ocean,” the track, was produced and mixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, who also lent his studio work to “Sweet Proximity.” True to the songs’ sharing their companion nature, as both mark the first new TELL music since last year’s breakout EP Life In Reverse, the single artwork is the same as that of “Sweet Proximity,” featuring an illustration by Morrison Digital Art and design by J. Kaliontzis. The band is taking a classic double A-side approach, another way to angle their art for the modern digital promo landscape.
“I think of these songs as two sides of the same coin,” says Foster. “They’re thematically connected by a fierce desire to communicate and engage in a meaningful manner while we’re all drowning in a sea of trivialities.” Adds Wildman: “Both are about the frustrations of isolation on a bunch of different levels, and how our media environment serves to stoke those feelings.”
Whether the punchy “Sweet Proximity” or the dramatic “Boiling The Ocean,” each reflects the uneasy tension that is suffocating our daily lives in this miserable and contentious 2025. It’s the sound in our heads when we’re trapped in public, wondering quietly how much more patience is needed to get through the damn day. “Sweet Proximity” taps more into the physical side of human connection, where “Boiling the Ocean” leans into the artistic.
“I think the song expresses frustration with the overwhelming and perpetual barrage of misinformation and vitriol that assault us all daily via our little omnipresent pocket oracles,” Foster admits. “Personally, my primary concern is that we have created a virtual forum where the voices that shout the loudest are the only ones that get heard. We’re all the losers in this societal shouting match, because the trophy goes to the most obnoxious and ignorant brawlers.”
Part of the allure resides in its rhythm section, as Raffi and Crann team up to deliver a thunderous growl that carries the track from start to conclusion. Wildman and Foster’s slashing guitarwork swerves and pivots like an oar in the water, steering the low-end to its destination, all while a hypnotic vocal elevates like a hymnal. Each solitary piece of “Boiling The Ocean” works in complementary practice with the others, showcasing a solidified TELL lineup and enhanced creative chemistry. The tidal hooks and seductive melodies are all intact, now clouded in a heavier sound and darker lyrical imagery fit for this insane and inane 2025.
“It was the contributions of the rhythm section that really helped this song to develop its distinctive identity,” Foster confirms. “We hadn’t really worked with this kind of heavy, intense tribal groove before. Pat and Jay are really driving this one, and it’s quite a ride. I think these two new songs are a little edgier, and possibly more distinctively and uniquely TELL in some ways, and more accurately represent where the band is at these days.”
And with the proverbial deck stacked against them – from the crowded musical landscape of countless bands vying for attention on social media and on the streams to the modern-day chaos that consumes the news cycle to the decreasing quality of American life under a growingly dystopian dictatorship – TELL are intent on getting their sound heard.
“So far the reaction to ‘Sweet Proximity’ has been exhilarating,” Wildman concludes. “People in radio, our listeners, and the press have been embracing the new, rawer sound, and sussing out the political change messages as well. I can’t wait for people to hear ‘Boiling the Ocean’, and watch the video.”
Even if it is via the internet. Eventually, just maybe, there might be a better way.
TELL is:
David Wildman: Guitar and lead vocals
Jay Raffi: Bass and vocals
Patrick Crann: Drums
Jim Foster: Guitar and vocals
‘Boiling The Ocean’ production credits:
Written by David Wildman and arranged by TELL
Lyrics by David Wildman
Produced and mixed by Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, MA
Music video directed by Rick Berlin
Single artwork illustration by Morrison Digital Art
Single artwork designed by J. Kaliontzis
TELL press photo by Dan Saltzman
‘Boiling The Ocean’ + ‘Sweet Proximity’ artwork:
‘Boiling The Ocean’ lyrics:
I’d slay the internet cause it’s
Standing in the way
I’d kill the influencers cause they
Got nothing useful to say
I’d tear a hole in the sky
Just to let some light shine through
Yeah I would do anything just to
Get the music to you
Boiling the ocean
To get our music to you
Boiling the ocean
Whatever it takes is cool
So here we all are now trying to
get some attention
And it all depends on this
Soul sucking invention
You gotta live a lie
Just to get some truth
But I will do anything just to
Get our music to you
Boiling the ocean
To get our music to you
Boiling the ocean
Whatever it takes...
...is cool
Yeah it’s cool
Boiling the ocean
To get our message through
Boiling the ocean
Whatever it takes is
Boiling the ocean
No matter what we do
Boiling the ocean
Whatever it takes is cool
Yeah it’s cool
Media praise for TELL:
“This week’s tranquil tunes end here. Boston band TELL’s new song ‘Sweet Proximity’ is a swaggering rock rager that stamps its feet to outburst of guitar. The alt-rock melee conveys a waning sense of patience, as it dances dangerously close to the line between grinning and bearing it, and straight-up insanity.” _Boston Globe
“...especially feisty…” _Rock And Roll Fables
“Boston’s TELL are back with a new single, and you’re going to want to buckle up for this one. ‘Sweet Proximity’ keeps the trademark TELL sound that we love, somewhere between gritty early 80's alternative that lives in the space between punk and New Wave, and mid 90's arena ready alt-rock. The guitars in this one remind me of bands like Mission of Burma and Sonic Youth in their distortion that is almost meant to repel you, but “Sweet Proximity” is also unexpectedly catchy. Add in just a little 70's style glam, and TELL have themselves a killer alt-rocker on their hands. This is the type of sound that should be huge, but the universe would never allow for that.” _If It’s Too Loud
“Sometimes one word can sum it all up. In the case of the new single ‘Sweet Proximity’ from Boston alt-rock band TELL, that one word would be ‘WOW’... [it’s] alt-rock perfection in every way. The melody and vocals washed over our music loving soul like a musical awakening of epic proportion.” _The Whole Kameese
“[Sweet Proximity’] has nail biting tension that emanates from the lyrics that seem clear but then they don’t. All you know is that things are not right. …We love the bass in this song. It digs in and gives the song its character.” _Boston Groupie News
“The alternative rock band from Boston does what it is good at on ‘Sweet Proximity’. Come up with a chorus that is as tough as it is singable, while the lead guitars swirl all around the melody throughout the song. The rhythm guitar is distorted but leaves a lot of space because of the accented, stop-start way of playing for the singer and the lead guitar to fill in the spots it leaves open… ‘Sweet Proximity’ is a tough single that captures alternative rock, some grunge and yes, classic rock from the 70s.” _WoNoBlog
“I love this — immediate love. It’s pretty edgy.” _Carmelita on Bay State Rock
“Awesome band called TELL with their stunning new track.” _Isaac Banks on Banks Radio Australia
“TELL’s Life In Reverse runs at around 24 minutes so there’s no excuse not to give it an hour and play it twice. An interesting listen that has some catchy melodic tunes with thought provoking and at times ironic lyrics.” _Maximum Volume Music
“Quiet visionaries in the footsteps of Television, melding new wave/punk and art-rock with virtuosity and detail.” _Ted Drozdowski in Premier Guitar Magazine
“Timeless riffs and steady backbeats open up to anthemic arena-ready choruses.” _Graeme Bentley, Music Director, Boston's 92.5 The River
“If you’re a first-class songwriter, being shut down just might wind up turning you loose. David Wildman has written his share of gems over the years, often in bands that deserved way more attention than they got. His new band TELL refines the moody yet pop-centric approach he’s had all along. …But the real news here is Wildman’s flair for storytelling: The songs here present characters who are a little offbeat, sometimes flawed but always recognizable, all making their way through a desperate era. It’s a lot like real life in these times, only catchier.” _Brett Milano, Boston music writer
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