Calendar of Events
Upcoming events and things to do in Asheville, NC. Below is a list of events for festivals, concerts, art exhibitions, group meetups and more.
Interested in adding an event to our calendar? Please click the green “Post Your Event” button below.
Diana Krall is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debut at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. To date, her albums have garnered two GRAMMY® Awards, ten Juno® Awards and have earned nine Gold, three Platinum, and seven multi-Platinum albums. Her 1999 release of When I Look in Your Eyes spent an unprecedented 52 weeks in the #1 position on Billboard’s Jazz chart, won two GRAMMY® Awards, and went Platinum in the U.S. and Canada. Her most recent release, This Dream Of You, has garnered critical acclaim from fans and press alike. Krall’s unique artistry transcends any single musical style and has made her one of the most recognizable artists of our time. As The New York Times recently noted, she possesses “a voice at once cool and sultry, wielded with a rhythmic sophistication.”
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
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Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.
Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.
And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!
Age is just a number, and Logan Halstead constantly reminds us of that. At just 15 years old, he wrote his first song, “Dark Black Coal,” a powerful, haunting song that depicts the struggles of a life of working in the coal mines, a lifestyle Logan witnessed many of his friends, family, and community members endure. Logan Halstead, 19 years old, is a country/folk/Americana singer-songwriter who grew up in Comfort, West Virginia. Logan pulls most of the inspiration for his music from the struggle and hardship of his own life and of the lives of those around him. Small-town living isn’t intensely stimulating, socially or economically, but spiritually, there is always a yearning for something more.
Born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia, it’s no surprise that Logan draws influence from Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson, but he has also found a lot of inspiration from the work of Nicholas Jamerson and Cole Chaney. “All these folks mentioned have laid a path and shown that it’s okay to be from these parts; we’re not so looked down on anymore…” says Logan. It’s given him the ability to be proud of who he is, and it has led him to be a driving force in the scene of young artists from the Appalachian region.
Logan doesn’t like to put himself in a box sonically or stylistically. Still, many would characterize his work as Appalachian/Americana music. Above all, his songs are raw and honest, and the writing is wrapped in wisdom one might only think could be conjured by someone two decades older. While the masses clamored for more content, Logan took his time and found the right partners for his debut album. He decided to cut his project at the famous Sound Emporium Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. He was accompanied in production by the one and only Lawrence Rothman (Amanda Shires, Margo Price, Angel Olson, and many more).
There is no question that Willy Tea Taylor’s life as a singer/songwriter was predetermined – his role realized the moment he wrote his first song. His inspirations drawn from two separate wells; Living the life of a cattleman’s kid and experiencing true visionaries music like Greg Brown, John Hartford, and Guy Clark. The image of Guy Clark and friends sitting around the kitchen table loaded with ashtrays full of butts, half-smoked cigarettes, food, and booze on one Christmas Eve in 1975 burned into Taylor’s soul. Those guys, swapping songs without pretense, lit Willy Tea’s fire. And ever since, its led purpose with passion – finding a hang by curating relationships through musical friendships that get him closer to his own Clark style kitchen table.
From his early days co-fronting The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, to singing solo in countless cowboy bars, to pitching countless wiffle ball games, Willy Tea has never lost the vision. Now Willy Tea Taylor has taken his vision of the “hero hang” on the road. and his talented traveling band The Fellership is made up of his fantastically talented buds who play Willy’s songs with a brand of reckless abandon and utter humility that spits in the face of pretense. The way The Fellership plays Will’s songs is the way they demand to be played and, in their short time together, they have been awe-ing every audience lucky enough to see them.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
Adult Classes
Wednesdays
2:45-3:45 pm & 6:15-7:15 pm
Afternoon adult classes are for fiddle, beginning guitar, and beginning mandolin. Evening adult classes are for bluegrass jam, and beginning clawhammer banjo.
“If you don’t let things develop, it’s like keeping something in a bag and not letting it out to fly”
— Earl Scruggs
It’s never too late to learn to play and/or enjoy being part of the synergy that is created by adult PacJAMMERs!
Adult classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the 14-week session.
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Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.
Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.
And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!
Sing with our Choir at a progressive church
Come join us! Contact Mark Acker for more information ([email protected]).
Rehearsals on Wednesday’s, 3:30-4:45
Beginning & Intermediate youth music classes on traditional and ol’ time instruments including but not limited to, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and guitar. Students will attend 40 minutes of music enrichment, including multiple flat-footing sessions led by Alice Kexel, story-telling, visits from guest musicians, as well as learn about the heritage of the music and the region. They will have 40 minutes of group music classes, and 40 minutes of singing or JAM rehearsal.
Advanced students will have 40 minutes of group instrument lessons, followed by 30 minutes of advanced singing including harmony and shape-note singing, and finish with 50 minutes of coached, small-ensemble rehearsal.
Classes are $15/session, for a total of $210 for the first student, and a 20% discount of $168 for each additional sibling. Parents may choose to split payments when registering. Inquire with Julie Moore at [email protected] or 864-420-6407 about scholarships.
Youth Classes
Wednesdays, 4-6 pm
Grab some dinner and a pint while enjoying our long-running Old-Time jam! Featuring many talented musicians from the local WNC area, our traditional Appalachian mountain music jam runs from 5-9pm every Wednesday night at Jack of the Wood!
Weekly mountain music JAM with
players in a round, where the session is focused on regional fiddle tunes and songs, You are welcome to come and listen or to
learn and join in. This event supports the Henderson County Junior Appalachian Musician (JAM) Kids Program, Free but
donations are accepted.
Sam Scranton (percussion + electronics) and Katherine Young (bassoon + electronics) make music together as Beautifulish. The duo fuses free improvisation with composed musical material. Tightly interwoven gestures smudge into expansive textures. Rainbows of noise produced through haptic and breathy friction create proximity and space, timbre and harmony, pitch and rhythm. Using electronics and amplification to augment acoustic instruments, the duo creates its own beautifulish soundworld.
Wind Cults
Wind Cults is an Asheville-based improv trio. Comprised of Brett Naucke (electronics), Thom Nguyen (drums), and Adam Lion (vibraphone), the trio utilizes an idiosyncratic improvisational language which prioritizes spontaneity, process, and the unknown. A sonic mishmash of cacophony, harmony, density and repetition, the group embodies musical extremes which branch in every direction.
TONY LEVIN – Born in Boston, Tony Levin started out in classical music, playing bass in the Rochester Philharmonic. Then moving into jazz and rock, he has had a notable career, recording and touring with Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Yes, Alice Cooper, and many more. He has also released 5 solo CDs and three books of photohraphy and poetry. In addition to touring with Stick Men, he is currently a member of King Crimson (since 1980) and Peter Gabriel Band (since 1977), and jazz bands Levin Brothers (with his older brother Pete Levin) and L’Image (with Steve Gadd, Mike Manieri, David Spinozza, Warren Bernhard). Tony Levin is one of the most recorded bass players in history of music, appearing on over 1000 albums, and one of the most iconic and recognizable rock musicians in the past 5 decades.
MARKUS REUTER – Markus is a composer, guitarist, and producer. Initially trained as a pianist, he subsequently studied Robert Fripp’s Guitar Craft and learned to play the Chapman Stick, later moving onto the U8 Touch Guitar. Reuter has re- leased several solo recordings and worked extensively with other musicians. He is one of the core members of the experi- mental band Centrozoon, is half of the duo Tuner (with Pat Mastelotto) and was also a member of Europa String Choir.
WE ARE ANTS TO THEM
…is the modular electronic project of synthesist & guitarist André Cholmondeley. WAATT touches base on various spots in the rich 125 year history of electronic music.
“We sing because we love to… and we sing because we can… and we sing for those who can’t… and we sing to honor the beauty of life within and around us!” -Althea Gonzalez, former Artistic Director
We welcome all who may be interested in joining and want to get acquainted!
Auditions for the Spring 2024 concert season are available through the end of February. For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact us here or by email at [email protected].
Interested in why our members chose to join Womansong? Hear testimonials from several of our members here.
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Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.
Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.
And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!
BLUEGRASS JAM
Hosted by Drew Matulich
Don’t miss your chance to check out some of the best pickers from all over WNC at our amazing Bluegrass Jam curated by the talented Drew Matulich — every Thursday starting at 7:00 pm! A real show-stopping performance only at Jack of the Wood! Open jam starts at 9:30 pm.
Dan + Shay: Heartbreak on The Map Tour
Join us for Jazz Jam Thursday every Thursday from 7-10. There is a suggested donation of $10 and local craft beer and wine for sale. Come as you are or bring an instrument! Open jam starts at 8 after a House Band set guaranteed to fill your soul with groove and joy.
Public parking is available at Marjorie Street, across from Packs Tavern.
The Israeli Chamber Project has appeared at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, Town Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, The Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, Ottawa’s Chamberfest, on tour in China and Hong Kong, and has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and WQXR radio’s Young Artist Showcase.
The Israeli Chamber Project’s tours have garnered rave reviews. “These players have to be heard to be believed.” (American Record Guide) “A band of world-class soloists…in which egos dissolve and players think, breathe and play as one.” (Time Out New York) The ensemble has established itself as a major artistic force on both sides of the Atlantic. These tours include appearances on some of the premier chamber music series, whether in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York or Beijing, as well as in remote towns where access to live chamber music is extremely rare. Guest artists on ICP tours have included the Guarneri String Quartet’s Michael Tree and Peter Wiley, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Principal Flutist, Joshua Smith as well as international soloists Antje Weithaas and Liza Ferschtman.
ARTISTS
Itamar Zorman, violin
Guy Ben-Ziony, viola
Tibi Cziger, clarinet
Assaff Weisman, piano
Auditorium seating is reserved.
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY
“Originally from Boyd County, KY, Chaney has since relocated to Lexington and is sure to be the next big thing coming out of Kentucky. At only 21 years old, Chaney’s catalog may be small, but he already boasts an absolute masterpiece of an album in which he proves wise beyond his years.
Mercy, his debut album released in 2021, is a 12-song showcase of Eastern Kentucky, blue collar anthems highlighted by Chaney’s deft lyricism and storytelling. An unknown musician prior to the album’s release, Chaney has since experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and has quickly amassed a growing and dedicated fan base, already thirsty for new music.” -Whiskey Riff
Born and raised in Nicholasville, KY, artist-to-watch Abby Hamilton is in the midst of a breakout year following the release of her acclaimed debut album, #1 Zookeeper (of the San Diego Zoo). Released this past fall via Blue Gown Records — a new imprint run by WhizzBangBAM’s Ian Thornton (Tyler Childers) in partnership with Virgin Music — the album was produced by Justin Craig and Duane Lundy and further establishes Hamilton as one of music’s most intriguing new voices. Of the record, American Songwriter praises, “infectious… introducing the acclaimed songsmith’s captivating blend of folk and indie rock,” while Holler declares, “one of the most refreshingly out of step voices in country music has made one of the year’s most genuinely brilliant and beautiful records” and Wide Open Country proclaims, “channels a universal relatability that will aid anyone’s journey of self-discovery and healing.”
In just the past few years, Hamilton has garnered a reputation as an engaging live performer and musician and recently made her television debut performing on CBS Mornings’ “Saturday Sessions” series. She has also opened for artists such as Tyler Childers, Deer Tick, Shakey Graves, Wynonna Judd, Blackberry Smoke, Kelsey Waldon and The Mountain Goats and performed at several major festivals including Bonnaroo, AmericanaFest, Railbird, Luck Reunion and more.
Seeing Drake White live is far from an ordinary concert experience. Equal parts warrior leader, holy-fire reverend, and gypsy Appalachian mountain man, he fronts his band with a mix of Muscle Shoals groove and honky-tonk grease. The goal? To continue building an inspired community with his voice, country-soul spirit, and relentless optimism, fusing everything he does — from the shows he plays with The Big Fire (his blue-collar band of road warriors), to the events he hosts at Whitewood Hollow, the rustic event space he hand-designed with his wife, Alex, in rural Tennessee — with the big-tent spirit of a revival.
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Sigal Music Museum’s current special exhibition, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred, highlights items from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, which hails from all over the world. Showing November 2023 – May 2024, Worlds Apart uses a diverse range of historical instruments, objects, and visuals to bring together musical narratives from seemingly disparate parts of the globe.
Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred aims to increase public access to historical instruments from around the world and improve visitors’ understanding of musical traditions at the global level. Expanding beyond the typical parameters of the Western musical canon, Worlds Apart seeks to expose audiences to musical instruments and customs that are often overlooked or exotified. The instruments and other exhibit materials will offer visitors new perspectives on global music and a chance to consider how music is used for prayer and leisure in cultures around the world. By celebrating these stories, the museum intends to further its mission to collect and preserve historical musical instruments, objects, and information, which engage and enrich people of all ages through exhibits, performances, and experiential programs.
Displaying various objects from the JoAnn and Frank Edwinn Collection, Worlds Apart: Musical Instruments from Secular to Sacred focuses on international musical instruments and cultures, celebrating rites and traditions with ancient histories and contemporary legacies. Frank Edwinn, a successful basso in the mid-20th century, studied and toured internationally, eventually settling in North Carolina, where he taught music at the University of North Carolina Asheville. Throughout his life, he purchased various objects from around the world, aiming to expose students, and himself, to the wide and wonderful world of musical instruments. This impressive collection occupies a unique position for educating audiences unfamiliar with the vast scope of global music.
And, UNCA’s Ramsey Library Special Collections is now processing the Edwinn’s papers and a few recordings that will be accessible next semester!
Plan to collaborate with other musicians at Sideways Farm & Brewery in Etowah. Bring your instruments and voices and enjoy making music and networking with other artists, while enjoying the beautiful scenery. Food truck is on site and beverages available for purchase from Sideways (small
batch craft beers, hard jun, ciders, wine, and non alcoholic drinks). Family, fans, friends, and leashed dogs are all welcome!
During winter months enjoy playing under the covered, sheltered, heated porch! And during the summer months enjoy
collaborating in the fields, on the stage, or under the patio
The Vaccines
Daisy The Great
When you look back at the sea of mid-noughties indie bands, there are few still standing and even fewer, some fifteen years later, who are still experiencing career highs. But this was the precise spot The Kooks found themselves in, four years ago.
After a worldwide arena tour, the release of their 2018 UK Top Ten album ‘Let’s Go Sunshine’ saw the Brighton band topping the bill at festivals across Europe and at home. The streaming boom had opened up The Kooks up to a new audience of young fans who loved their distinctive brand of indie rock and were itching to see them play live.
Coming off the back of a punishing tour schedule, frontman, Luke Pritchard — vowed to take a bit of a breather. But instead, found himself right back in the studio.
“I started going to Berlin for three or four days at a time. I was really affected by Brexit and I wanted to make a bit of a statement by creating a European record,” he explains. “We’re a European band, we practically lived out there and have so much love for Europe, so we wanted to keep that connection.”
Berlin has long been something of a creative Mecca for artists from all over the world and Pritchard found himself moving in those circles, meeting the collaborators he would work with on their behemoth of a sixth album, ’10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark.’ The period was one of work, inspiration and creativity as opposed to partying. “I wasn’t doing any drugs,” Pritchard attests. “It was more dive bars and a bottle of whiskey than Berghain.”
The environment quickly started to work its magic. “A lot of songwriters have found refuge in Berlin,” he says. “It’s a free place, it’s not so consumed by commerciality. I was looking for something a bit rawer, a little bit more minimal. Sometimes you just pick up these nuances somewhere. It’s not necessarily the people, it’s the place.”
Armed with a new mantra — to not overthink things and just make a record that he’d want to listen to at home, the ideas came freely and easily. Pairing up with Tobias Kuhn to co-write and produce the bulk of the record, their first writing session saw them pen intention-setting lead single, ‘Connection,’ in just a few hours. Things were moving well with the pair laying down five tracks, but in March 2020, COVID put a stop to Pritchard’s European dream, forcing him to return home to the UK to finish the writing sessions over Zoom until Tobias was able to fly out to London and record with him and the rest of the band, Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synthesiser/bass) and Alexis Nunez (drums).
Despite the dual locations, there’s a distinct Berlin sensibility to ’10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark.’ Flirting with genres from 80s synth-pop to funk to prog rock, the album is still, at its core, an indie record and a Kooks one, at that.
It’s a record that doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel but takes that classic Kooks sound and adds something of a retro-futurist slant — both sonically and in mindset. It’s an album about being hopeful and seeing the great in the world, despite the darkness. There are unapologetic love songs (‘Without A Doubt,’ ‘Oasis’), tracks about partying through pain (‘Connection’), terrible exes (‘Cold Heart’) and even a song for Pritchard’s newborn son, Julian. (‘Beautiful World’), born prematurely while the band were on tour in Mexico.
Getting married and becoming a father you get a sense that we’re hearing from a new Pritchard — one whose demons are behind him and is optimistic about the future.
“I really hope that sense of inner peace comes across,” says Pritchard of the album’s resoundingly optimistic outlook. “I really want to have fun with my life at this point. But also — it’s kinda a reflection of what I was feeling in real-time in a pre-and-post COVID world. I was reading a lot of sci-fi — like Philip K. Dick, Azimov and surreal stuff like Boris Vian — which is obviously really distracting from what’s going on in the world, but helped me be imaginative with the songs.”
It’s a relief to hear a healthier perspective from a band who have had their struggles played out in the press for fifteen years. Bagging a slew of top 20 hits in their teens (‘Naive,’ ‘She Moves In Her Own Way’) with 2006 quadruple-platinum debut album ‘Inside In/Inside Out,’ the young band didn’t always know how to handle everything that came along with superstardom.
“Mental health has been a big focus of our band for quite a while now. Because we’ve all struggled in our own ways. That’s not to say we haven’t had amazing lives, but just we struggled with fame big time, like really struggled. And we got it wrong a lot of the time.
“We did get famous quite quickly and we didn’t have a lot of the stability required to not let that seriously affect you. All of us, in our own ways, have made some very poor judgements and some really good judgements. And we’re here, so it means we’ve done very well to keep it going and to keep ourselves sane. But I have ultimate compassion for anyone who gets famous anywhere.”
But as with everyone, there comes a point in life where you reach a sense of stillness, you become more comfortable in your own skin and the right path becomes clear to you. The band have been experimental over the years — most notably on 2014’s Inflo-produced jazz-funk album ‘Listen’ — something that has been key to their longevity, but getting back to what people love about The Kooks was front of Pritchard’s mind: whether that person was “a fifteen-year-old kid in South Africa or someone who was at our first concert.”
The result isn’t a rinse and repeat of their earlier sound, though. Instead, we get those infectious Kooks melodies and riffs, but over synths and electronic beats. There’s even some saxophone in there, moving their trademark sound well into 2022.
“Indie is a word we were running from for quite a long time,” he admits. “The band’s done a lot of different records, but we do have quite a style. A big part of it was not running from anything. We’re gonna just do what we do, but better and with a few more fresh ideas.”
In the studio, he made some rules: not to overcomplicate things, throw in some old-school Kooks riffs, “the very classic, Naive-y kinda stuff, but with more minimalism” and to get back to that noughties thing of treated vocals. “It’s not that I hate my voice — I just mainly dislike it. So the more you can disguise it, the better!”
Having that focus helped make a cohesive record that leans on the band’s legacy while still sounding fresh. “On certain albums you make decisions based on other things and you start trying to chase your own tail. This record isn’t about trying to smash everything up and reinvent. COVID hitting in the middle of recording was a good time to kind of really reflect on all our albums and be really happy with our journey.”
As The Kooks, continue to reach an ever-growing audience of young fans, ’10 Tracks To Echo In The Dark’ feels like a mission statement. It’s a celebration of getting through troubled times and a rallying cry for our future.
This is a band whose career highs are still to come. They’re right to feel optimistic about what’s next and that the future might be a little bit brighter.
And the key to seeing fifteen years of success as a band?
“Hard work,” says Pritchard. “And a lot of luck.”
Get ready to unleash your inner rockstar because on March 2nd, at 8 PM DSSOLVR is hosting a guilty pleasure event like no other. Hold onto your butts, it’s our “Take Me Higher: Nothing Butt Rock Night”!
What’s Butt Rock, you ask? It’s that high-octane, adrenaline-pumping rock music that gets your heart racing and your head banging! Remember when songs were simple, Riffs were formulaic, and lyrics without hidden meaning? Yah, we’re back baby! HARD RADIO ROCK.
Prepare for an unforgettable evening filled with the ultimate jams that’ll have you rocking out all night long. But that’s not all – we’re bringing the party to the next level with late-night karaoke, so you can take the stage and sing out your favorite butt rock anthems!
We’ll be unveiling our brand-new beer, “Take Me Higher” Double Barrel Brown Sugar Barleywine! It’s a brew crafted to elevate your senses and rock your taste buds like never before.
So grab your crew, don your best Affliction shirt, and join us for a night of epic ROCK.