For Lukas Nelson & Promise
of the Real, 2011 was a year packed with over 200 high-energy, spirited
performances, including such mega-musical events as Farm Aid, Bridge
School Benefit, Stagecoach, and Country Throwdown, the chance to spread
their unique brand of gritty rock and roll to millions of people via
the greatest of the late night shows, Late Show with David Letterman,
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and the adoption
of the name Realers by their growing base of supporters.
But 2011 was also the year, through blood, sweat and
trying times, that Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real - which also
includes drummer Anthony LoGerfo, percussionist Tato Melgar and bassist
Corey McCormick - made good on that promise to keep it real, and to make
their way out of the shadow of a famous father and into the hearts and
souls of music fans nationwide the way that they wanted to… on
their own downhome rock and roll merits.
During the summer of 2011 Nelson, 22 years old at the
time, found himself in the most intense writing jag of his early career.
His journey spanned three soul-searching summer months during an intense
15-week tour. The result, the band’s second full-length album,
Wasted.
“I was up every night until the wee hours of the
morning just writing in the back of the bus. I had a lot of ideas and
was very inspired being out there on that tour; there was a lot going
on. This record is a snapshot of that time. You know, there were a lot
of pressures on the road and there are a lot of people who view touring
as just one big party. It was like summer camp. I soon realized I wasn’t
really being myself and I had a big wake-up call and it’s during
that time that I wrote this record.” |
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But Nelson doesn’t want people getting the wrong idea that Wasted is
an album about partying. It’s not. It’s about the idea of wasting
your time, your life, your creativity, and reminding yourself to stay true
to your values and ideals. For Lukas and Promise of the Real that’s always
been about family, positivity, and spreading love and happiness to others. “I
have a lot of reflections about the honesty of people in general,” Nelson
explains, “and this record explores big life questions and what it means
to waste your life away. There are many definitions for the word and this record
delves into a lot of them. It’s not a one-dimensional album, it’s
meant to be listened to and internalized. There are a lot of sentiments about
missing loved ones and being on the road, and even some political and military
hints in there.”
On Wasted the band’s familiar sound evolved from past recordings. A
huge influence on this was Neil Young, whom Lukas calls a “distant mentor” and
who suggested the band try a different approach to recording their new album. “Neil
Young suggested that we record the music live in the studio in analog, which
is something we didn’t do on the last album,” says Nelson. “It
really added a lot of magnetism, energy, and gave the music a live feel, and
a lot of warmth to it. I feel like this record sounds more like what you get
when you see us perform.”
recording the record at 192
Drummer Anthony LoGerfo explains: “Neil recommended recording the record
at 192 [which denotes the speed of the tape], and is kind of a futuristic thing.
Normally records are recorded at 48. It’s similar to picture quality – the
more picture frames that are in a square, the crisper and clearer the picture
is. It’s the same with music. Also, this process makes you record live
which makes it very real.
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You can’t do a lot of overdubs
and everything is dry when you record it, so we recorded everything in
analog and used a lot of older equipment which gave it a bit of a vintage
sound. But, to me, it’s like a new vintage sound because the old
feel is there but is still really crisp and clear.”
The band had a magical time in the
studio, taking Nelson’s acoustic guitar renditions of the 14 tracks
and turning them into true Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real creations. “I
think he’s improved a lot as a songwriter because he’s writing
a little more cohesively and showing us a different side to his writing.
It’s a little harder, more rockin’, and more danceable,” says
LoGerfo of Nelson’s growth as a writer.
But, lest we forget: Lukas
Nelson & Promise of the Real is a band. “Lukas gets all credit
for writing, and I’m proud of what he’s done here, but the
arrangement and the sound is definitely the band,” says LoGerfo. “We’d
listen to the song on his cheap little recorder one time through and
then go into the studio together and start jamming and it would come
out completely different than how we wrote it. The lyrics and chord changes
were there, but the sound would just morph.” |
Helping the band fine tune their sound was Wasted co-producer
Jim “Moose” Brown,
the Grammy Award-winning session musician/songwriter/producer and Bob Seger
guitarist. The album was recorded at Brown’s Moose Lodge Studios in Nashville
and he helped POTR broaden their sound by introducing instruments they haven’t
recorded with before, such as Dobro guitar, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B3 Organ,
which Moose plays; and steel guitar played by Cowboy Eddie Long (who has played
with Jamey Johnson, Hank Williams III). Joining Moose and Cowboy as special
guests on the album is Harmonica player Mickey Raphael and Lukas’ sister
Amy Nelson who sings on two of the album’s tracks.
The band chose to kick the album off with the “The Golden Rule” as
a way to show where their musical direction was heading. “We chose it
just because it’s different. It’s not something people have heard
before in terms of the style of music. It’s a mix of a lot of different
influences. We made it much more percussive and rhythmic and changed the rhythm
so it feels more like calypso or Paul Simon or like my dad’s Teatro.
So I thought musically it would be cool to open up with the record with this.
And also the message is important. The first word on the album is ‘Ohm’ and
the song is about treating others the way you want to be treated. I thought
we’d start the album off with a message we stand for.”
The first single from the record is the title track, “Wasted,” a
feel-good tune with a strutty vibe. “I had just finished Keith Richards’ book
Life, when I wrote that song,” says Nelson of the song’s inspiration. “It
was kind of influenced by the Stones and I wanted the song to be something
that reflected our live show and that I could really move to onstage.” Logerfo
adds, “This song and this album are really road tunes. By being on the
road together so long for those three months, we really improved as a band
and got tighter and you hear that on this album. The songs are really jammy
and fun to play live and represent us and we hope all the Realers out there
enjoy it!”
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real earned themselves
a stellar 2011 with gigs nearly every night, spots on such mega-events as
Farm Aid, Bridge School, and Stagecoach, national TV airtime on Letterman,
Leno, and Kimmel, and rave reviews for two simple reasons: Great songs and
even better live shows.
Now, they’ve found a way to bring that performance experience to their
second full-length release, Wasted, both lyrically and musically. “Neil
Young suggested that we record the album live in the studio in analog, which
is something we didn’t do on the last record,” explains Lukas Nelson,
who penned all of the tracks and produced the record with his band – Anthony
LoGerfo (Drums), Tato Melgar (Percussion) and Corey McCormick (Bass) – and
Jim “Moose” Brown. “It really added a lot of magnetism, energy,
and that live feel, and a lot of warmth to it. I feel like this record sounds
more like what you get when you see us perform.”
Neil Young, whom Lukas calls a “distant mentor” for the band,
also suggested that the band record on a full moon. Not only did they hit the
studio – Moose Lodge Studios in Nashville – on full moons, but
they also mixed and mastered the record on a full moon and purposely chose
the April 3 release date because it’s yet another full moon week.
all about capturing a moment
“This record was all about capturing a moment, and there are some special
full moon moments that I think we captured on tape,” adds Nelson. The
moments in particular that are captured on this record was the time on tour
over the summer months during which Nelson wrote the album’s 14 songs
in the back of the band’s tour bus.
“Wasted is a snapshot of this last summer on tour when I wrote most
of this music,” he says. “It was the summer of debauchery. I was
socializing a little too much and not really being true to myself. So the whole
record was a snapshot of me making one of the many mistakes I’ll likely
make throughout my life. There were a lot of pressures on the road and there
are a lot of people who view touring as just one big party. I started staying
out until 4 in the morning. It was like summer camp. It took a toll on me.
I soon realized I wasn’t really being myself and I had a big wake-up
call and it’s during that time that I wrote this record.”
But, Nelson is quick to add that Wasted is not just
about a summer out of control; it’s about the idea of wasting your time, your life, your creativity,
and reminding yourself to stay true to your values and ideals, and for Nelson
and his band that’s always been about family, positivity, and spreading
love and happiness to others. “There are a lot of definitions for the
word wasted; it’s not a one dimensional record. It’s meant to be
listened to and internalized. There is a lot of sentiments about missing loved
ones and being on the road, and even some political and military hints in there,” he
says of the lyrical matter.
Adds drummer Anthony LeGorfo: “It’s really a road record. We
did 18 weeks straight on tour in the summer and that can kind of waste anyone.
I think it’s also great to listen to while you’re driving down
the road. And because Lukas wrote it at one time, I think this record is more
cohesive than the last one. By being on the road together so long, we really
improved as a band and got tighter and you hear that on this record. These
songs are really jammy and fun to play live.”
Though Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real didn’t stray too far
from what their core sound is, they did play around with new instruments and
sounds and a few new influences seeped into the music as well. For instance,
the album kicks off with “The Golden Rule,” which has a bit of
a calypso vibe, and includes several gritty rockers, such as “Old Familiar
Pain” and “Wasted,” which Nelson admits is his “strutty
Rolling Stones” song.
“We have a lot of new instruments on there that we haven’t really
used before, like the Wurlitzer, the Hammond B3 organ, Dobro, and lap steel
guitar… That was Moose’s influence,” says Nelson. “Moose
plays on all tracks and Cowboy Eddie Long (steel guitar) on most of them. We
really extended the family beyond our core four on this record”. Along
with Moose, Cowboy and the rest of the core that includes Percussionist Tato
Melgar and Bassist Corey McCormick , the band also brought in Lukas’ sister
Amy on two songs “Wasn’t That Great?” and “Can You
Hear Me Love You?”
That said, at the core of Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real and Wasted
is what their fans know and love best. Rock n Roll that speaks from the heart
. “First and foremost we’re just people in a rock n roll band and
this is a rock n roll record indicative of that,” adds LoGerfo.
For more information on Lukas Nelson & Promise
of the Real :
www.promiseofthereal.com or
www.shockink.com
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