“Therapy”
is the ninth studio album by The New Mastersounds, the now multi-national funk
band originally from Leeds/England. With a new perspective in sound and vision,
Eddie Roberts (Guitar), Simon Allen (Drums), Joe Tatton (Keyboards) and Pete
Shand (Bass) recorded 12 fresh tracks in Denver/Colorado USA, aiming for a
forward thinking sound mixing vintage funk with raw soul, smart jazz and
original disco.
“Music
and the creation of music has always been my therapy,” says Eddie Roberts. “It
has been a way of working through ideas, feelings, frustrations. In creating
music, especially instrumental music, it is an incredible outlet for pent-up
emotions. People often tell me how much energy they draw from our music, often
in a therapeutic way. I find the idea incredible that from my feelings, turned
into music, that same music then generates feelings in the listener. It is an
exchange much like the physics of music itself: from a string vibration into an
electrical signal, and back from electrical signal into vibrating sound waves.
I hope that this album will be as therapeutic and valuable to the listener as
it was to me creating it.”
On
“Therapy” The New Mastersounds introduce a couple of new faces. “I met Kim
Dawson on Jam Cruise last year when she performed as part of my super jam. We
didn\'t have time to get to know each other at that point, but subsequently
through various shows and social situations in Denver, where she lives, we got
to know each other well and I felt that she understood and shared my vision of
music. ‘I Want You To Stay\' was a lyrical sketch I had and she helped and
co-wrote with me to make some sense of what I was trying to say. \'Soul Sista
was a poem she had written recently and, as the backing track was inspired by
the Lyn Collins/James Brown track … I thought her message was a very
appropriate fit. Ryan Zoidis has been a friend for a few years through
festivals and musical collaborations performing with Lettuce. When ‘Slow Down’
called for a Maceo-esque solo he was the obvious choice and nailed it!”
The New
Mastersounds tried a few cover versions over the years, but for “Therapy” the
choice is special. “At the end of the recording session we decided we wanted to
record a cover version of a current song and we put it to our Facebook friends
for suggestions. After we had checked out a few initial suggestions thankfully
someone suggested ‘Treasure’. I also realized that Bruno Mars is performing at
the Super Bowl interval 2014 and thought it would be a good tie-in as our album
will be released around the same time. It\'s a very well written song and
reminiscent of a Stevie Wonder vibe. We tried to do a version that would sound
like George Benson was covering it in 1974!”
“WWIII
(and how to avoid it)” is another key track for the album. “The background to
‘WWIII’ is that we arrived at the studio in Denver on the morning the US
Congress was about to vote on whether or not to strike Syria after the alleged
chemical weapons attack. There was a real feeling amongst us of sadness,
frustration, fear and disbelief that this strike could be imminent despite
pretty much the whole world being against it. Subconsciously these emotions
came out in the recording of this tune which, before we recorded it, had no
title. Musically it reminded me a bit of \'Cease the Bombing\' by Grant Green,
an anti-Vietnam-war statement. The doom we felt instigated the title ‘WWIII’,
yet the hope we had that sense would prevail made for the footnote and how to avoid
it.”
“Therapy”
is released as LP, CD and digital download on Légére Recordings.
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