April Update from Ben
Hey folks. Just got back from SXSW last week and went straight into Ardent Studios. As far as South by Southwest goes, we had a blast. Five shows in three days and we didn’t mess any of them up too bad. It’s always crazy down there but with the help of our tour manager Will we made it through just fine. We have to thank all the folks that came out to see us and the venues for having us. Got to see my little brothers and some old friends… yup, good time all around. Now. Recording. This is our first record for Univeral Republic and we’re at Ardent studios in midtown Memphis. This is actually only the second time we’ve done a full band record in Memphis (That Much Further West was the only other one). I think we made a good choice. We wanted to take our favorite pieces of Memphis music history and combine it with the drunken rock&roll we usually play and see what we came up with. This is gonna be a soulful one folks. We’ve got a lot of the basic tracking down and now we’re getting into the really fun stuff, like Rick Steff’s keyboard parts and horns and backup singers. Yup. Backup singers. Don’t worry. We’re working with a producer named Ted Hutt and he’s got a really good idea of how to get this record where it needs to go. We’re using a bunch of great Memphis musicians and we’re in a studio that has been at the center of a lot of great Memphis recordings… we’re in good hands. Can’t wait for ya’ll to hear this stuff. Everybody in the band is really excited. So hopefully we’ll get some pictures up soon from the recording session. Brian’s working on some guitar parts right now. Time for me to head back over there and sing a few. Take care out there ya’ll. -Ben