American Authors has released a new single, “Brick By Brick.” “Brick By Brick” comes from the band’s forthcoming EP Counting Down, which is set to be released on September 18th via Island Records. On the new song, vocalist/guitarist Zac Barnett shares: “‘Brick by Brick’ is about conquering the impossible. No one can stop us from achieving greatness & breaking down barriers that others may have set in front of us.” Never a band to rest on its laurels, soon after releasing third full-length, Seasons, in February 2019, American Authors were struck with a surge of inspiration. While other bands might have ignored that to focus on the album cycle, the four-piece did not. Instead the band, rounded out by guitarist/keyboardist James Shelley, bassist Dave Rublin and drummer Matt Sanchez rented an Airbnb in Nashville for a few days with the express intention of writing new material. The result is Counting Down, although Barnett points out that the band weren’t actually setting out to make a new record. “At the time,” he explains, “we weren’t thinking about this as a collection of songs, because it fell so close after releasing the album. We were just writing to write, and that’s what was really fun about these songs, but coming right after an album, there were no limits on what this was. We were just writing from the heart.” In fact, what would eventually turn into EP actually started life as a singles project when the band decided to release “Microphone.” It was a song they’d been sitting on for a couple of years and felt it would make an amazing live song to release before tour – which started in January and finished at the end of February, mere weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic really struck. But soon after finishing that song, they were connected with Norwegian EDM production duo Seeb, and the collaboration of “Best I Can” was set in motion. As the pandemic continued to spread and grow, the band’s members realized it might be a long time until they’d be able to get together in the same room again. “We live in three different places now,” says Barnett, “but we’re such a collaborative band that when we write music we write it all together. With everything going on, we didn’t know when the next time all four of us would be able to fly to a studio space and start cranking out new stuff. But we had these songs we really liked, and it seemed like a good time to do another EP and share these songs with the world – if we can give people a little bit more joy or happiness, a bit more light and hope at the end of this tunnel, why not do that right now?”