Engineered, Mixed & Mastered at Tempermill Studios in Ferndale, MI by Dave Feeny
Vinyl was manufactured at Archer Records Pressing Plant in Detroit, MI
Artwork by Nathan Bortz
Executive Produced & Distributed by The Bellyache Record Shop
Includes unlimited streaming of Boss Radio ft. Mister b/w Detroit J ft. Passalacqua
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Written, Arranged & Performed by DUENDE!
Jeff Howitt - vocals
Joel "Jelly Roll" McCune - guitar
Scott Sanford - bass
Laura "The Boom" Willem - drums
Mister - 1st rap
Brent 'Blak" Smith - 2nd rap
Eric Kacir - congas, aux percussion
McKinley Jackson - keys
Chris Krez - trumpet
4 Part Harmony -
Rah Fraser
Lynshannon Denise
Lisa Stocking
Regan Patricia Lorie
credits
released October 5, 2012
You get ‘em all into the studio and nothing else matters. There’s just the dialogue of musical minds. Conversation in melody; ruminative crescendos.
Nothing and Everything and Anything can make sense.
With so much music behind us, “…such lineage,” as singer/songwriter Jeff Howitt put it; with such a wide-palmed grasp of various terminology (however much of it useful or however much of it passe slang), …with our heads’ uploaded with information and trivia and historical tid-bits and professional tips, rounded perceptions of myriad genres and styles, we are equipped with keen sensibilities for eclecticism.
We’re open-minded. Forget the noise, the quick and dirty labels. On certain nights, inside the studio, when you hit record for a room full of a dozen different musicians, preconceptions spill away, forgotten.
There’s “…just musicians playing together.”
Line em up into the studio:
Your rhythm section comes from a collective and you’ve got two rappers rhyming over soul-singers while a psyche-rocking guitarist is sitting in on trumpet; an indie-rock girls adding her vocal talents over the buzzy chimes of an esteemed keyboardists with 50 years’ experience adding tasteful accoutrements all to back up a rock quartet that’s often pegged for being “all over the place.”
Thus it was that Duende laid down what will be a single called “Detroit J.,” featuring members from Passalacqua, Will Sessions, Pewter Cub and the Electric Fire Babies, as well as McKinley Jackson (who plays with The Wrong Numbers).
“There was no conversations about: ‘rappers over a country-rock band,’” Howitt said, “it’s just music. These are just musicians responding to each other.”
The single has not determinate plans as of this week; it could come out as soon as September, but potentially later into the early winter.
“Somehow, it all operates,” Howitt said, beguiled by the synchronicity stitched through what could have been chaos; each needle threads itself and eventually you get some weird wonderful sonic patchwork.
It brings a luminescence into the studio, brilliant glows from each contributor fuzzing together.
Sang and left unspoken.
“People call these things, almost rudely, like: rock n roll, or jazz. They’re all slang terms to people,” Howitt said. “It’s almost like, whatever ‘Establishment’ wouldn’t let it be called ‘real’ music, so they deemed it: ‘Rap.’ Or, it’s ‘Rock n roll.’”
This was a moment, Howitt says, captured onto five minutes and thirty-six seconds of tape, “when it was -just-music.”
“There’s all these things you can do but it’s really just music; so you might as well find the best way for that piece to translate.”
“Yeah, Passalacqua’s gonna be Passalacqua and Duende’s gonna be Duende but they come together all of a sudden at these places where I’d had no idea there’d be an overlap.”
Singer Kate Hinote (of the Blueflowers) also contributed one of the many tracks laid down, recently, by Duende. “Even with that, with the Blueflowers, they’re more like the beautiful-twilight and angels-singing-to-you,” visioned Howitt, “while we’re the weirdos-in-the-forest you just spent the night with, not-quite-Easy-Rider-ish, but… But still, our bands work together for live shows. It’s those ideas behind a band, the idea of keeping a band together.”
Lineage. Ideas. Blending ideas.
It’s establishing a myth for your band, Howitt said. Sustaining your gang.
Making your own lineage.
And when so many players from so many different gangs come into one room for one song…
“…it’s a pretty interesting place to be at.” - JEFF MILO FOR THE METROTIMES JUNE 21st 2012
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