Renewable Energy is the perfect title for the new record from UK’s premier funk/soul/jazz outfit, The New Mastersounds.
The title is perfect because the band never seems to tire. Their long career, spanning a plethora of studio records, and countless live shows would be enough to wear any band out. But listen to this band’s records, or watch any of their live performances and you’ll see there’s undying font of energy that is welled up inside each member of the band. Their passion for the live sound is infectious, and it’s hard not to groove to any of the tunes (original, collaboration, or covers) that the band plays.
This week the band rolls into Asbury Park, New Jersey to perform at The Wonder Bar. We caught up with the band’s co-founder, drummer, label manager, social media manager, and photographer, Simon Allen to talk about the new record, dream collaborations, and more.
You released a new record, Renewable Energy, on April 13 of this year. Let’s start with the title of the record — is there a story behind this? To me, it speaks to the band’s longevity and how much energy you just seem to have in every single song — like you guys are a bastion of renewable (and unending) energy.
The title in fact refers to the recycling of energy that takes place between us as individuals and between the band and the audience on our live shows. The energy we put out bounces back and gets reinvested in the performance. We feed on eye contact, smiles and dance moves. Before each show we let the lighting engineer know that we always need to be able to see each other’s faces and the faces of the audience. Sometimes the in-house lighting director gets carried away, creating a dark show with trippy lasers, haze, frequent blackouts, not realizing that he or she is cutting off our energy supply.
Since you guys are a mostly instrumental band, can you talk about how you go about writing songs? Do you guys get in the studio and jam, and improvise, or is there structures of songs written/demo-ed beforehand?
We do it both ways. On this record, for example, Joe [Tatton] came into the studio with the idea for Tantalus on piano and we all worked together to develop it into an arrangement, overseen ultimately by Eddie [Roberts], who produces all our music. When Eddie brings an idea in it’s usually more fully-formed because he has already been arranging it in his head. He sometimes records a drum groove idea by singing it into his iPhone, so he play it to me later as a suggestion.
There are only two tracks on this album that feature vocals. One is a cover of The James Gang’s anthem ‘Funk 49’ and ‘Gonna Be Just Me’ featuring Adryon de Leon. Can you talk about why you picked these two songs to have vocals on? Also, can you talk about why you chose Adryon de Leon as your only vocalist on this record?
I think ‘Funk 49’ was suggested to us by our former manager, Austin Briggs as part of a classic rock covers session we recorded one day in Denver. We then found out it was Eddie’s wife’s favourite song, so that has something to do with it ending up on the record!
Adryon de León had sat in with us on vocals lot of times in recent years, but hadn’t written or recorded anything with us, so we decided to put that right. We recorded the tune as an instrumental, arranged with vocals in mind, and then sent it to Adryon in L.A. to write and record over. We then sent the track with vocals on to our horns in San Francisco. “Gonna Be Just Me” is the result.
At the end of the day, how do you feel this record stands out from the rest of your catalog?
We’ve had a lot of great reviews heralding this as a bit of a change of direction. It’s still totally groove-based, but many of the grooves are more uniform than our signature scratchy mid-tempo funk, and there’s a lot of jazz across the top from Eddie, Joe and the horns. So maybe there’s been a slight shift from jazzy funk towards funky jazz – it probably still just sounds like New Mastersounds to most ears.
Obviously you guys have a deep love and respect for classic funk, and soul. If you had the opportunity to work with any funk or soul artists on a New Mastersounds record — living or dead — who would be in your Top 5, and why?
Here are five we just came up with in the van on the way to Asheville.
Lee Dorsey – We covered “Give It Up” for the first time last night, so he’s fresh in our minds.
Aretha Franklin – My personal favourite singer.
Maurice White (Earth, Wind & Fire) – What do you mean, why?!
Maceo Parker – He’s sat in with us several times but would love to get him on a record.
Labi Siffre – A British singer and musician who is sadly retired from music now, but check out “The Vulture,” “I Got The…,” and “It Must Be Love” to see why we picked him.
You’ve played countless club dates, as well as numerous outdoor festivals — which do you prefer to play?
My personal favourite kind of gig is the tiny, sweaty, intimate low-ceilinged 100-cap club.. Such shows are rare and precious due to the economics, but here are three that spring to mind:
Boom Boom Room, San Francisco
The Press Room, Portsmouth NH
Public House, Crested Butte CO (we’re playing here again in a couple of weeks).
What do you love most about being in The New Mastersounds?
Meeting new people every night and spreading joy.
Finally, what are you most excited for in 2018?
Playing the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park this week, of course!
