Freekbass, hailed by the legendary Bootsy Collins as “the new spiritual warrior for the funk,” is ready to serve up his new album All The Way This. All The Way That. on the exciting new Color Red imprint on May 31st. The highly anticipated album embodies the past, present, and future of funk music from the creative minds of Freekbass and co-producers Itaal Shur and Color Red founder Eddie Roberts. The ten track album captures Freekbass’ sound and influences traversing funk from different locations and eras, but the result is 100% original Freekbass. All The Way This. All The Way That. has a warmth that hasn’t been captured until now. That’s because part of the record was recorded straight to a Tascam 388, an eight-track tape recorder with a cult following at Color Red studios, that showcases the infectious energy of a live Freekbass show.
Freekbass has cemented himself as a ground breaking bass player and funk guru. His innovative styling including his signature double thumb strumming technique has garnered critical acclaim and a cult fan following. With the new album, Freekbass has devoted his craft to push the funk forward by harnessing the Cincinnati sound and merging it with universal influences that bring the funk to the present with the spirit of the future. The Freekbass experience is rounded out by the powerful sounds of The Bump Assembly including all star players Rico Lewis on Drums (George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic), Sky White on Keys (Foxy Shazam), and Sammi Garett vocals (Turkuaz).
Today Glide is excited to premiere “Gotta Get Back To You”, a healthy dose of 70s future-funk that is as reminiscent of the Fatback Band as it is Patti LaBelle. With Sammi Garett lending a brassy, disco-esque vocal style, the song is a quick-thumping journey through Freekbass’s endlessly funky and psychedelic universe. While there is little doubt that Freekbass takes a precise approach to his instrument, he also manages to capture a loose, in-the-pocket groove that invites dancing while still sounding proggy.
Describing the tune, Freekbass says, “’Gotta Get Back To You’ is a textbook example of the creative flow, when working out of Color Red. As with most of the tracks on the album, the song started with the bassline and grew out from there. Eddie took the James Brown approach to additional parts on this song, where every instrument and vocal added to the overall rhythm. He had this great idea for Sammi’s vocals, where her phrasing was almost like a horn part. This song came together very naturally and organically.”
LISTEN to the track and read our interview with Freakbass below…
Your sound has been described as embodying the future of funk music. What is the future of funk music in your opinion?
Funk is becoming a word that is almost as broad as saying “rock & roll”. That is a good thing. There are so many styles of Funk now, and that continues to grow each year. A lot of it is geographic, which we will talk about in a bit, but it is also the way new generations are taking the style and bending and merging it with other styles of music they grew up with. Folks like George Clinton, James Brown, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Bootsy, and The Meters (to name just a few) planted the seeds, and now they are sprouting into new galaxies of sounds, orbiting a heavy pocket.
The new album was recorded straight to a Tascam 388. How do you think doing it like this shaped the sound?
It was a huge part. Not only in the warm and analogue sonics that you can create with actual tape, but our playing approach. With digital, tracks are infinite which can give you “we can correct this or that later” mentality. With tape there is a limit to how much there physically is, so you know your performances have to be tight, right, and correct. All of the bed tracks (bass, drums, keys, guitar, etc.) were done in one room with one complete take. No overdubs. If someone made a mistake, we started over and recorded the whole song, until it felt right.
You seem to sample a range of funk styles and influences. Can you talk about some of the styles and influences that informed this album?
I really wanted to capture the feelings and sonics of a lot of the albums that influenced me growing up. Everything from Sly Stone, to Dr. Dre, to Chic, to early 70s James Brown, with a contemporary ethic. With my own personal playing, I leaned into a lot of finger-style grooves. There is thumping and plucking of course, too (fyi- I am not a fan of the term “slap bass”).
Working and writing with Eddie Roberts on half of the album with his production skills, and Itaal Shur on the other half, really shaped the sound. Eddie plays guitar on the songs he co-wrote, and I think that influence is brought to those tracks. Itaal is a keyboard player, and I think you can feel that on the tracks he and I wrote together. And the amazing musicianship of co-writers Rico Lewis on drums, Sky White on keys (who both tour with me) and Sammi Garett on vocals, along with Reilly Comisar and Adryon de Leon, all had an imprint on the sound of the album.
You grew up in Ohio. How did the Ohio funk sound inspire you?
Ohio and Cincinnati are a huge part of who I am, musically. I am sure I would be playing music if I grew up somewhere else in the world, but not sure it would necessarily be Funk. The funk sound is very dominant in this part of the country with things like James Brown’s label, King Records, being from here and groups such as Zapp, Ohio Players, Bootsy, and Midnight Star being from this area in Ohio and influencing generations after. You heard those groups all over growing up here, and playing bass, that sound is what penetrated my soul.
How did you come upon your double thumb strumming technique? Was there a eureka moment?
It started kind of by accident. I was playing bass in kind of a heavy-dance type band. Some of the songs felt like they needed me to use a pick to make the groove drive a little harder. I used a pick for a bit, but I never liked how it limited me from doing other techniques with my right hand such as finger-style, and thumping and plucking, which I was just starting to get into. So I noticed if I used my thumb, kind of like a pick with up and down (double-thumb) movements, I could create a similar drive as I did when using a pick. As I got better at it, I started learning a lot of the James Brown rhythm guitar parts, and playing them on my bass with this technique. I could then rotate back and forth between that style, thumping, and finger-style, to create different tones and funky-feels within the course of the same song.
Is there a theme that links the songs on All The Way This. All The Way That.?
With stating the obvious, Funk! That is the thread for sure. You will notice that one side of the album (All The Way This) has a bit of a retro-sound, which is the side produced by Eddie. The other side of the album (All The Way That) which is mostly produced by Itaal, has more a futuristic-feel. That is why the title felt appropriate. “A little of this, a little of that”, but all the way Funk. As I mentioned earlier, Funk is timeless and always growing. It can’t be regulated to one era. That is part of the mission statement for this album, I think. #FunkForward !
Talk about how “Gotta Get Back To You” came about.
All of the songs that we recorded at Color Red studios in Denver were done over a 4 day period. We would get up early morning and start writing, about 10am. By mid-afternoon we were rehearsing the new song and tweaking changes, and by that night, laying down live takes in the studio. “Gotta Get Back To You” was like that. Eddie, Sky, and I started with some riffs along with Rico’s beats. Also, Rico had a cool idea at the end of the song where the bass would almost do a walking part – almost in a gospel kind of way. Once we got the music part down, Eddie had a cool concept for this one where we would make the vocal lines almost like horn stabs. We threw that concept at Sammi, and she ran with it and the vocal tracks were laid on top of the live track. When we put it all together with the arrangement, “Gotta Get Back To You” was born!
All The Way This. All The Way That. is out May 31st. http://bit.ly/FREEKBASS-Preorder
