Eight-piece Gulf Coast soul band The Suffers have announced their third studio album It Starts With Love will be released on June 3 via Missing Piece Records. The Houston-based band shared the official video for their album opener “Don’t Bother Me,” an electrifying declaration of independence and empowerment. Crafted in collaboration with Swedish writer/producer and longtime friend Johan Karlberg, the new single sets the stage for an album that refuses to back down from any challenge.
“I received the original demo for ‘Don’t Bother Me’ in 2015 from my old friend and producer, Johan Karlberg,” shares frontwoman Kam Franklin. “Even though we loved the song from the start, it would be another four years before the band finally stepped into a studio to record it. We knocked it out over the course of two-and-a-half days at Argyle Studios in North Texas, with Jason Burt and Matt Pence, after a long summer of messing around with it in between tours and during soundchecks. I can honestly say that bringing this song to the finish line has been one of the honors of my career so far. Influenced by the complexities, power, and care of Buena Vista Social Club, Miami Sound Machine, and Sly and The Family Stone, ‘Don’t Bother Me’ is a demand to be left alone by the outside world so that the wildness, fun, mistakes, and freedom that should come with being a young adult can truly be embraced.”
It Starts With Love tackles issues of racism, misogyny and the music industry, while at the same time chronicling growth, evolution and self-acceptance. Written in the midst of a tumultuous stretch that saw the Gulf Coast Soul powerhouse reinvent themselves personally and professionally, the record is a fierce, defiant ode to resilience and commitment, to the passion and drive that brought them together in the first place. The writing here is bold and self-assured, with fearless lyrics and addictive melodies, and the performances are blistering to match, fueled by buoyant rhythms, muscular horns, and Franklin’s hair-raising vocals.
“I wanted to make a record that sounded like Houston to me,” Franklin explains. “You’ve got the hard edges and tough exteriors and hip-hop swagger, but then you’ve also got the sounds of the choir and the soulfulness and even a little bit of twang. I wanted to make something beautiful out of hardship.”
Mixed by GRAMMY-winner Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), who transferred all of the sessions to analog tape, and mastered by Chris Longwood (Khruangbin, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic), It Starts With Love is an album for survivors, for the down and out, for the doubted and the written off, but it’s delivered with the kind of faith and conviction that ultimately transcends pain and anger to instead land on something far more triumphant and spiritually rewarding.
The Suffers are hitting the road this spring, kicking off a string of U.S. dates in Tilmon, TX at Old Settlers Music Festival on April 23 and heading out West to Phoenix, AZ, Reno, NV, and many more before concluding in San Antonio, TX on June 3. A full list of tour dates can be found below or at thesuffers.com/tour.
It Starts With Love Tracklist:
- Don’t Bother Me
- A Cha Cha (Heartfelt Truth)
- Could This Be Love
- Take Me To The Good Times
- Busy (Interlude)
- 808
- Call Someone Else (feat. Sugar Joiko)
- Yada Yada
- Bitches Gotta Get Paid
- Be You (feat. The Vapor Caves)
- How Do We Heal (feat. Son Little and Bryce The Third)
- I’m Not Afraid
- Nunya
Tour Dates:
4/23: Tilmon, TX – Old Settlers Music Festival
4/29: New Orleans, LA – Tipitinas %
4/30: Huntsville, AL – Panoply Arts Festival
5/5: Baton Rouge, LA – Chelsea’s +
5/6: New Orleans, LA – Toulouse Theatre +
5/7: New Orleans, LA – Republic #
5/19: Tucson, AZ – Hotel Congress *
5/20: Phoenix, AZ – Last Exit Live *
5/21: Inglewood, CA – The Miracle *
5/22: Costa Mesa, CA – The Wayfarer *
5/24: Santa Barbara, CA – SoHo *
5/26: Reno, NV – The Cypress *
5/27: Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club
5/28: Napa, CA – BottleRock
6/3: San Antonio, TX – Carver Community Cultural Ctr
6/4: Austin, TX – Mohawk
6/10: Chicago, IL – Chop Shop
7/1: Portland, OR – Waterfront Blues Festival
7/3: Victoria, BC – TD Victoria International JazzFest
7/8: Denver, CO – Levitt Pavilion
8/23-28: Athens, Greece – Keeping The Blues Alive at Sea Mediterranean
9/17: Huddleston, VA – Smith Mountain Lake Wine Festival
9/18: Camden, NJ – XPoNential Festival
% with Galactic
+with Neal Francis
#with Big Freedia
*with Fat Tony
