Assertion
Assertion is a band forged in resilience, built on chemistry, and sustained by the will to keep moving forward, even when everything seems to fall apart. Formed in the Pacific Northwest by drummer/vocalist William Goldsmith (Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft, Foo Fighters) and guitarist Justin Tamminga, the band introduced themselves with Intermission in 2021, a record marked by raw immediacy and the renewed sense of purpose that came from returning to music not out of obligation, but out of necessity.
But the story didn’t end there. In fact, it barely began
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As Intermission wrapped, the world shut down. “We just kept writing and recording new songs,” says Goldsmith. “But on top of the lockdown, a lot of life changes and traumatic events occurred that delayed the process of Basking repeatedly.” Among them, Tamminga was hospitalized twice, the second time with a traumatic brain injury and a fractured wrist. It halted progress, but didn’t stop it.
That perseverance led to Basking in the Gaslight, an album that sounds like survival. It’s heavy, but not just in volume. It's a deeply personal record written in the wake of psychological manipulation, emotional upheaval, and the long process of healing. “The title is sarcasm first,” says Tamminga, but it runs deeper — into the experience of being gaslit and reshaped by narcissistic control, of trying to claw back your own reality. “Quite a few of the songs are lyrical depictions of having flashbacks and dealing with traumatic events.” Still, Basking isn’t conceptual. “We don’t go into it with an idea or a theme,” Goldsmith adds. “We just start playing and write music based on feeling and unbridled human expression.”
The process of making the record was anything but simple. Recorded over multiple years, with songs tracked as they were written and gear constantly shifting, the production of Basking became its own journey. “There wasn’t an easy template,” says Goldsmith. Once better equipment and software came into play, much of the record was remixed and re-recorded from scratch. Along the way, Tamminga absorbed inspiration from tourmate and Sunny Day Real Estate FOH engineer Marc Hudson, diving deep into mixing techniques, plugins, and sonic exploration. “I had a new arsenal of tools, new understandings, inspiration, and ideas,” he says. “So I pretty much started over at that point.”
What emerged is a record that feels intensely alive, thick with atmosphere, catharsis, and pain. But it’s also rooted in connection and hope. “If you fall down, I’ll help you rise,” Tamminga offers on “Rise,” a track written as a message to their children and one of the heaviest, and most hopeful, songs on the album. “All the things that got me into relationships that pushed me to write an album like this… I’m trying to grow, be a better person, break old patterns,” Tamminga shares. “That’s the inspiration.”
With Basking in the Gaslight, Assertion hasn’t just made a powerful record, they’ve made something that bears witness to endurance. It's not about perfection or polish. It's about truth, scars and all.
"...they sound straight out of the mid '90s post-hardcore era. William's drumming style is very similar to his work on Diary, and the dark, heavy, atmospheric songs recall stuff like Hum, Jawbox, and Quicksand. Assertion put a fresh spin on this stuff..."- Brooklynvegan
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