Backburner (ft. Tucker Antell & Mike Outram) – out now

‘Backburner’ was recorded as part of ‘The Hang’ – an album recorded live at Masterlink Studios on two days. Each musician contributed original tunes to this session and the result is?fresh and exciting! Dave Limina (piano chair of Berklee College of Music) and Tucker Antell (tenor saxophone) were flying from Boston to join the Funkestra rhythm section – it was funk at first sight. Listen to Tucker’s composition ‘Backburner’ with both him and Mike Outram taking off on their respective solo flights – vivacious!

It was an obvious decision to record the album ‘The Hang’ at Masterlink Studios, home of our ‘Masterlink Sessions’ with James Welch. Read more about them here and feel free to support us via Patreon.

In many ways the concept of ‘The Hang’ follows the same ideas I had for ‘Concubine Chronicles‘ (recorded in 2008 at British Grove Studios in Chiswick, London). Basically take the band to the studio and hit the record button without any significant overdubs – in essence to capture the raw live energy of the band as well as the excitement playing brand new tunes.

One of the differences to ‘Concubine Chronicles’ though: in 2008 I wrote all the tunes for the album but for this one I asked everybody in the band to bring some tunes to the session. This resulted in a flurry of creative activity, arranging the tunes together and finding musical parts on the spot – I think we’ve captured the energy of the process and also the musical and personal bonds that we have with each other.

Another difference were the musicians involved. Both Mike Sturgis and Dave Limina were part of ‘Concubine Chronicles’, however, Tucker Antell, Karl Vanden Bossche and Mike Outram were the three newbies versus Mike, Dave and myself (the ‘old-bees’).

I had many moment during the recording session when I thought: ‘Whoah, this is the band I always wanted to play bass in!’ – obviously kind of a funny thought considering the fact that I’m the ringleader of the whole project.

Tucker Antell was the newcomer to the band. He joined us on a Tuesday morning and had to leave Thursday just after midday – flying back to Boston where he lives. He certainly brought his A-game and we were all in awe of his ideas, energy, musicality and also sheer power!

Thinking on how many years I’ve been working with the guys – the longest I’ve known Dave Limina – I’ve met him at Berklee College of Music around 1994 and he recorded Hammond on my first album ‘Boozing Wizards’ (with Larry Finn on drums, another Berklee faculty member). Then I’ve met Mike Sturgis ca. 1996 at the Musicians Institute at MI. Karl Vanden Bossche I’ve met around 2010 in ‘The Staks Band’ (a rough guess) and although I’ve been following Mike Outram‘s guitar playing for decades, it was only last year that he started working with me in the band and in the studio. I absolutely L-O-V-E what these guys can bring on their respective instruments – what a pleasure and honor to play with them all – I mean it!

Listen on the artist friendly Bandcamp or the ‘usual suspects’ digital services here.

Credits

• Mike Outram – guitar
• Mike Sturgis – drums
• Karl Vanden Bossche – percussion
• Dave Limina – Hammond organ
• Tucker Antell – saxophone (tenor)
• Stefan Redtenbacher – bass guitar

Recorded, mixed & mastered at Masterlink Productions by James Welch www.masterlinkproductions.co.uk
Graphic Illustration by Stefan Redtenbacher
‘Backburner’ written Tucker Antell
Released on RSB Records, RSB749001