Ohio based improvisational rockers The Werks have released four highly acclaimed studio albums over the past ten years – Synapse (2009), The Werks (2012), Mr. Smalls Sessions EP (2014), and Inside a Dream (2015) – performed well over one thousand shows (including launching their own multi-day music festival The Werk Out), and released countless live recordings including last year’s Live at The Werk Out live album. In that time they’ve earned a devoted fan base across the world and reputation as one of the most energetic, compelling, and downright entertaining live acts in the business. They’ve developed a hard-won confidence, and a willingness to fearlessly chart new sonic territory on their new album Magic due out 3/17/17.
The songs on Magic started as sketches the band members crafted independently. Coming together in their sonic dojo The Werkspace, those seeds of groove were nurtured by the group, growing into fully wrought songs through holistic arrangement and organic improvisation.
The songwriting finished, the band decamped to Sonic Lounge in Grove City, Ohio. There lead engineer and producer Joe Viers (Blues Traveler, Twenty One Pilots) settled down to work with the studio’s legendary Amek/Neve 9098i mixing console. One of only thirteen in the world, Sonic Lounge’s was originally installed in Olympic Studios in London, England, where it served to document the unique creative mojo of Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, and more.
From those sessions emerged a rare jewel of a record; Magic is muse put to tape, a direct download of the creative spark. “This is a recording of the music that’s in our souls” explains Rob Chafin. “We play and write together so seamlessly now, we’re able to channel the inspiration in our hearts out into our instruments, and come at this from a pure place.”
Glide is proud to premiere “Magic” off the new album (below), a well oiled single filled with both cryptic electricity and hypnotic bliss. The Werks have taken their songwriting to the next level, incorporating a kaleidoscope of rock genres, while retaining a perfect dose of soul.
‘Magic’ is a song about mystical adulation of the enlightened female, the hero who embraces her goddess within to help save the world,” says keyboardist Dan Shaw. “It began as this minimalist hypnotic repetitive vibe that the band locked into, and then in the studio we gave the tune some fucking hair instead of something that was too emo.”
One Response
I miss Norman.