:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom ::
:: November 16 ::
:: Cervantes’ Other Side ::
:: November 17 ::
By Ben Waligoske
Any music fan familiar with the Leeds, U.K.-based group The New Mastersounds — especially those who have seen the quartet live at any point in their 14 years of existence — can attest to the enthusiasm and infectious energy they bring to their craft. The band’s willingness to remain on a relentless tour schedule while still managing to regularly release polished studio efforts over the past few years, has helped them to purvey their contemporary spin on the classic soul and funk-jazz traditions around the world, garnering fans from tours in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
Now, after taking time off from the road for the first time in years this past summer, the group is back with a new album and a set of exclusive dates — including two nights at both Cervantes’ venues. The new record Out On The Faultline Roberts mentioned will be released on November 5 and will be The New Mastersounds’ eighth studio album. It marks the second album the band has recorded on American soil.
“This past summer was really our first proper break in a while,” said guitarist Eddie Roberts in a recent interview with The Marquee. “Myself, I’ve been doing over 200 shows a year for the past couple of years, and in general, it’s natural to need a little time for each of us to do our own thing.” After pausing for a moment, the guitarist continued with a chuckle, “And really, after traveling so intensely with one another for 14 years, we know each other well enough by now that a break is really just a nice time to breathe a bit — it’s not a particularly unfortunate situation or anything like that. Now we’ve got a new record coming out and shows to look forward to again, so it’s great getting right back into it. For us, it’s sort of simple really, it’s an attitude of, ‘Well, we’re alive, so let’s keep making records and playing shows. This is what we do and we love it.’”
“Out On The Faultline was recorded at Faultline Studios in San Francisco, and that came about for a few reasons. I’ve recently made San Francisco more of a home base — in fact the studio is about eight blocks from my home, so we were able to ride bikes to the sessions, which was wonderful. And at the time the album was recorded, we were in the middle of a U.S. tour and wanted to record, so we called around to a few studios in the area. We needed something with a large live room, because that’s how we like to record — most everything we’ve ever recorded has been done live, as it were, and Faultline fit the bill,” said Roberts.
While The New Mastersounds have been playing some of the album’s new material live, Roberts said that didn’t really start to happen until after the album recording was already completed. “All of the material on the album is new for us, as well,” he said. “It’s been a few months since we finished recording it, so we have been trying out a few of the songs live in that time, but really everything was newly written for the record.”
The 10-track album will be released the same day that the band will play an intimate hometown show at the Sela Bar in Leeds, U.K. From there, New Mastersounds will support the release with a return to the States for a short run of exclusive dates beginning with Florida’s Bear Creek Festival, before stopping in Denver for a two night stand, which Roberts seemed particularly excited for.
“We’re really looking forward to the Denver shows, the second of which will be an intimate night in Cervantes’ Other Side room. After that we’ll be done for the year — we’re flying to Japan in January, but really those nights at Cervantes’ are our last shows of 2012, so we’re planning on making them special. We’ve always loved playing in Colorado — the fans are incredible, but also people organizing and promoting the events have always been so wonderful and dedicated. So, when we found out the venue was available we knew it would be an incredible way to end our year.”
:: New Mastersounds ::
:: Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom ::
:: November 16 ::
:: Cervantes’ Other Side ::
:: November 17 ::
Recommended if you Like:
• Soulive
• Galactic
• Grant Green
