A werden auf ein paar Gigs für die Toten Hosen eröffnen. Die genauen Termine sowie ein paar Statements von Sänger Jason zum neuen Album in den Kommentaren.
Das neue Album, "HiFi Serious", erscheint am 2.April und wird einige sicher überraschen, da es doch deutlich härter zur Sache geht als auf dem Vorgänger. Einen guten Beweis dafür liefert schon die erste Single, "Nothing", die bereits am 11. Maerz in den Regalen stehen wird.
Hier könnt ihr lesen wie Jason (voc.) das Album in eigenen Worten beschreibt und was in den letzten Monaten im Umfeld der Band passiert ist: JP here, back at home after a considerable time in the Brussels summer sun shine. Studio ICP baby... ICP.
I had a plan. My plan was to do as much work as I could, sitting round the pool, drinking lots of Jupiler beer and getting very brown. Plan worked out just dandy. The tans gone now, so has the hangover but the lyrical sentiments will stay with us forever... man. Mmmm...
Hope you're all well. It's been a strange ol' month. If you're like me, you'll have been deeply effected by the September 11th happenings. The Millennium Hilton hotel, that's the one on the news with all the coffee cups still half empty on the tables, is the official "A" hotel. I normally stare right into the towers from my room. Our record company is a few blocks away in Tribeca and probably like alot of you, we had a bunch of friends and loved ones in lower Manhattan and in the surrounding skies that morning. As it happened, we were in the studio in Chiswick putting finishing touches to "Hi Fi Serious" but it seemed a bit weird to say the least. I mean moving vocals around on a computer screen, still seems a bit weird to me on a normal day, but on a day like the 11th, everything seems trivialised. It puts alot of things into perspective. But the show goes on.
Nearly a month later, David Beckham has proved to the world that he is an utter genius, covering ten and a half miles in one game and single handily sending us to the world cup finals.
We started bombing the Taliban and oh... last night we did the last mix and HOLY SHIT!!! Hi Fi Serious is finished!!! Put to bed. D.O.N.E. It sounds wicked. Still needs mastering, as I'm sure you know, but the mixes are done. We're looking at 12 songs for the record and at the moment, I'm in the middle of recording and mixing the b-sides.
From memory the tunes list is as follows, not in order though:
Starbucks (pop punk tastic, hit single time)
Nothing (you lot down the front are gonna go nuts when this kicks in live)
W.D.Y.C.A.I. (punk rock with a huge chorus)
Six O'Clock On A Tube Stop (sounds like the police meets the Jam meets the Foo Fighters)
Pacific Ocean Blue (song about Dennis Wilson form the Beach Boys, right Jim eating his world gear)
Going Down (my favourite song on the record, a triumph for "A")
Took It Away (quiet verse, loud chorus, song about hating boybands, apart of course for Nsync now that I've met 'em and they were awesome in Philidelphia... hey when the Bloodhound Gang ask you to go hang out with their new buddies, you don't turn em down and it was the loudest gig Ive ever been to... please believe me... it rocked, just ask Jim.)
The Springs (early U2 sounding slow song about being ever so lonley in your favourite place, yep this year Palm Springs takes the number one spot as Tahoe drops down to 2nd place due to its lack of snow for the last two years.)
Somethings Going On (more grade "A" pop punk. Boy you should hear the mid-8 on this puppy. Best chorus we've ever written. Tom, Mark and Travis are gonna be singing along just dandy.)
The Distance (Mark Chapman does a proper full on Van Halen guitar solo and no we are not joking... we're Hi-Fi Serious...)
HiFi Serious (A musical journey, it goes nuts from start to finish.)
Shut Yer Face (Gonna be a single i think. Think Papa Roach meets REO SPEEDWAGON and you're laughing.)
I'm knackered and just about sick of recording studios. Actually, you can't get sick of recording studios. I love 'em. I tell yer it's magic. You write a bunch of tunes, rehearse 'em, do pre production and then you get on a plane and turn up at this big empty studio. It's amazing walking in. There's the desk and it's all set to zero and all the EQs are flat and all the mics are in the cupboard and all the lights are dim... Anything can happen.
There's reels of empty tape and there's empty computer hard disk space to be filled up. It could go horribly wrong, it could go horribly right, it could change your world, it could split the band up or make you superstars. You just don't know. You walk in with a bunch of ideas and some empty tape and you leave with a record. I tell you, it's a great thing. Its as close to magic as it gets.
It's been a long, tiring, and emotional process and now it's all there for people to hear. You're gonna love it. You might hate it, who knows. But I'M sure you'll love it.
Im so proud of this record. It's such a confident sounding record. It sounds like a band who've toured, grown and learned how to break it all down to it's simplest, most rocking form. It's so much more assured than anything you've ever heard from "A.". It's Rock, it's Punk, it's Pop, it's emotional, it's mental, it's big, it's huge, it's so in your face and loud and it's like nothing out there. I can't wait for you all to hear it.
There will be lots of formats with lots of b-sides and it's gonna blow people away. I'M so excited at the prospect of playing "Nothing" live. Seeing all you lot in the mosh going mental, I can't wait.
Und A werden auch im April wieder live die Hallen rocken. Hier die bestätigten Termine:
Als Support der Toten Hosen: 18.04 Saarbrücken 19.04 Zürich 21.04 Karlsruhe 23.04 Münster 25.04 Dortmund
Und A werden auch auf der diesjaehrigen WDR Osterrocknacht in Düsseldorf am 31.März zusammen mit Heather Nova, Fu Manchu u.a. spielen.
Außerdem sind Headliner Shows in den Medienstädten geplant (Hamburg, Koeln, Muenchen, Berlin) mehr dazu in Kürze.
