‘Home To You’, their new single out now with a big album ‘Did You Miss Me’ coming out on April 13th…
Christian, Ethan and Jason, your band sits in a perfect balance between soul and house music…how did you all meet, Christian for instance you were behind Cooly’s Hot Box…
“We met in New York City. Though at this point in time my full time passion was Cooly’s Hot Box and I was consistently focusing on writing and producing vocal-centric soul and dance music, I did other gigs playing drums here and there around town to let off some steam and pick up a few extra bucks. I played fairly regularly with Victor Axelrod “Ticklah” who occasionally hired a horn player or two to come blow over some changes. One horn player was named Topaz, who like many New york musicians also had his own project he was working on. He asked me to come do a recording session with him and that’s where I met Ethan. A few months later Jason (fresh out of Oberlin college) got recruited as well, and the three of us started playing regularly as the rythym section for that groove oriented project. It was a lot fun and we did some solid touring and recording which helped to form the sound you hear when Jason Ethan and I play as Tortured Soul today”
‘Did You Miss Me’ – the new album featuring some beautiful songs, talk us through the album and what tracks stand out for you?
“Well we’ve put a good chunk of work into all the tracks, and all of them mean a lot to us, but I’ll make a couple comments about a few songs.
‘Home to You’ – Is I guess you could say a classic Tortured Soul presentation. We endeavored to create a soulful house track, with disco overtones…like a lot of the album.
The subject matter was directly influenced by the experience of touring so much over the past 3 plus years. It’s a brief description of a sentiment that’s familiar to TS and anyone who has had to leave a loved one for a while. Something about the overall feeling of the song kind of reminds me of a late Commodores kind of vibe. We like it.
‘Time to Make up your Mind’.
“This song represents perhaps my favorite collaboration as Tortured Soul on this album. It is a soulful house sort of production, but veers into an afrobeat style solo section that captures some of the live momentum that happens at a live TS show. It was also a very collaborative writing experience, which isn’t always easy. Deciding what to say can be very personal, and agreeing on the authenticity of feelings is sometimes hard to do. Being democratic about writing can feel counter intuitive unless you are really on the exact same page. I feel like we found common ground as writers on this song, and the song has a unique strength as a result of that. I’m also very self critical when it comes to my vocals, and I like the way the vocals on this track turned out.
‘Special Lady’
“Was a fun track for us, again it captures some of the live energy that can be elusive in the recording process, we like Tequila. Is definitely left of center as far as what we have recorded as Tortured Soul though. It’s an ode to our favorite pick me up. It showcases a bit of Ethan’s alter ego as a superior composer of eccentric esquivelesque influenced music and as well lends insight to how serious his passion for drinking truly is. He pushed to get this song on the record and Jason and I we’re happy to lend a hand to pull it all together, if for nothing else than to make our dream of a herra dora sponsorship finally come true. I think we were all also very excited about how the title track “did you miss me” turned out. When I initially wrote that song, I sketched it out as another house/dance production, but when I presented it to Jason and Ethan they had different ideas about how it should be produced, and each worked out a very cool arrangement very different from the way I was hearing it. Both versions are on the record and both represent a transition from the dance format which Tortured Soul is typically associated with. The “motown” version, spearheaded by Jason, more than any other production we’ve done to date helps to bridge the gap between what we’ve done as a “dance act” and what we can do as a “pop act”.
So Christian… One of the great things about your band is yes, soul and house is the basis, but you also incorporate jazz into the sound… who were your early musical influences, what artists did you listen to growing up?
“All of us at one point or another at various stages of our musical appreciation and training have listened to and studied the works of Stevie Wonder, Duke Ellington, Donnie Hathaway, Bill Evans, Michael Jackson, Heatwave, AC/DC, Earth Wind and Fire, Chaka Khan, Thelonius Monk, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Erroll Garner, Taste of Honey, Led Zeppelin, John Coltraine, The Bee Gees, Big Daddy Kane, Donna Summer, Slave, Run DMC…
From an outsiders point of view, the name of the band and coupled with how you are always pushing the boundaries of your music, what are your thoughts of dance music today – boring or moving forward?
“Well from our standpoint, hopefully it’s moving forward. Playing it live has given it a new twist. (Or an old one). I think because dance music is so universally appealing it will continue to attract listeners and musicians in droves. Given the massive pool of people who have access to dance music making equipment today, coupled with the misconception that it’s easy to make, will spawn at least a small number of good creations by the those who catch the bug, and become the tenacious frustrated few who have the will to stick to it and plod forward in hopes of making something cool, pretty or meaningful. So there’s always hope for new and exciting creations in this genre of music.”
Who is the maddest on tour – and what has been the best rock n’ roll story – on tour?
“Well we all have our moments, depending on the Tequila consumption on any given night. Some of the greatest parties actually occurred in the back of our van (R.I.P. Janice) on our early tours. We’d just grab whatever alcohol from the club and try to cram as many people as possible into the back with and get down!”
Jason, Best club/live gig you have ever played at…
“One of the more memorable shows was the first time we played the Montreal Jazz Festival. We had no idea what to expect and after dragging our equipment through a mall we stepped out on stage and realized we in front of a crowd of over 15,000 people!”
Biggest 10 tunes on your i-pods at the moment?
I like to keep things pretty eclectic. Here’s what I got going now, in no particular order:
Ladyhawke – “Magic”
Bon Iver – “Lump Sum”
Tinariwen – “Cler Achel”
Telefon Tel Aviv – “The Birds”
The Dramatics – “Whatcha See is Whatcha Get”
Jamie Lidell – “Figured Me Out”
Copy – “This is Promotional”
Eddie Palmieri – “Vamos Pal Montar”
Teenage Bad Girl – “USB Dick – Plug Me In”
Oliver Cheatham – “Get Down Saturday Night”
Best city in the world you’ve played and why?
“That’s a really tough one – we’ve been fortunate to get to so many incredible places. Rio, Manila, Talinn, Jakarta… not trying to evade the question… it’s just really hard to know where to begin! I guess I could choose Cape Town as a combination of an incredibly beautiful city and amazing show.”
What artist would be your dream accompaniment joining you on stage to play with?
“Stevie Wonder, except that I would be accompanying HIM, so I could hear him sing and play those keys alllll night!”
Ethan, some big shows coming up, Brooklyn, LA, Istanbul, the Jazz Cafe in London (see you there), Berlin – what you most looking forward to?
“We’ve been really fortunate over the years in that we’ve had great, fun shows everywhere. We’ve played in all of those places, some of them many times, and they were all really memorable shows with great crowds. Food-wise? Istanbul. Hands down.”
And Ethan, Giles Peterson on Radio 1 – a big fan huh?
“He’s definitely said some nice things about us and he’s always been massively cool when we’ve crossed paths. Whether he’s a big fan or not will have to be his question to answer, but we’re definitely big fans of his. Personally, I wore out his Brazilian compilation from a few years back and I really appreciate how open-minded he is about the music he plays and supports. It’s always refreshing to hear a DJ who supports whatever’s good and taking chances, rather than sticking to one genre all the time.”
What’s next for Tortured Soul in 2009?
“Who knows, maybe a video or maybe even (gasp) laying out some ideas for the next record? The only thing I can say for certain is there will be several batches of new remixes and without a doubt, we’ll be touring like maniacs!”
