Albert Frost - The Wake Up CD Digipak [NEW / SEALED]

Albert Frost woke up.

For such a prolific performer, his new album, The Wake Up, comes a surprising seven years after his last solo release, Devils and Gods. And for someone whos spent 21 years as one of the Blues Broers before quitting the band last year, The Wake Up isnt quite as bluesy as one might expect. Ive been slightly pigeon-holed as a blues guitarist, Albert Frost explains which is just how the music business works. But actually, my influences are very wide and range way further than just the blues. And Ive never had a vehicle to explore that or felt that my voice is ready for this.

Until now. The Wake Up, while firmly rooted in the blues [I cant escape it, I love it so much, says Frost], is varied, eclectic, and certainly very different.

The Blues will always be a part of me. I just needed to expand my sound, and show people that theres  a bit more to me than just a blues ou, you know. Thats from years of working with everybody and doing everything from classical stuff to hard rock and everything in between.

So Ive stepped out of the blues.

Its a wake-up to me, or like a new musical direction that Im taking, and also for people that know me, who are around me, and also hopefully a little bit in the industry from a quality standpoint.

The record opens with Outside, which is the bluesiest track on the disc, and sounds exactly like the Albert Frost youre familiar with. But when the track slows down towards the end, it morphs into something else. Almost symbolically, the opening lines of the second track read like a letter addressing the past:

Dont say goodbye, my friend

Weve only just begun

Those crazy days have drifted on

Well still have our fun

This song, Tonight, expresses a kind of determined, independent direction maybe some separation from the Blues. But obviously, a musical departure isnt all this record is about.

If theres any kind of concept its basically its a culmination of everything that Ive learnt over the last 2 decades of being in this industry.

Tracks like Modern Romance and Home No More are cynical, while Summer Rain, Morning Pages, and Against The Wall are very light and optimistic, despite addressing feelings like being trapped and admissions that hard times and bad news are inevitable.

Each song is like a journey, in a sense, that starts somewhere and ends somewhere else, explains Albert. This is especially evident in Sunrise and Morning Pages the latter songs intro was so big, and the main body such a departure, that Frost opted to separate it into two different tracks.

Theres this other side of Albert that they havent seen yet.

Its me exploiting music more, instead of it being focused on lyrics and a vocal, which is great anyway, cause it sounds like its the same guy, where, on Devils and Gods it sounds like six different bands, while its one project.

What happened with the recording process is I actually spent a year in the studio recording everything myself. So Ive got pieces of songs in, and I played the drums and the bass on them as a pre-production exercise to try and find a formula that I can work so it sounds like its from the same artist, cause I can be very eclectic between the songs.

So what happened in my year of trying to get to this formula that I finally got, is that theres five places incorporate the style that Im infusing which is blues, rock, psychedelic rock, African, and South African influence. So those are the foundations of the sound.

And its this multi-faceted Albert Frost that is depicted in the cover art: Someone whos not just the one thing the world has labeled him, but rather a composite of different sides, different influences, and different musical styles.

Yet he also brought in some help where needed: [Collaboration] was important to me from a lyrical sense, cause Im more an instrumentalist than a lyricist. So thats where I needed help to finish the product. And I think its fabulous because it brought a whole different angle or flavour.

Most of the lyrics on the album is co-written: Hunter Kennedy, Robin Auld, Simon Orange, and co-producer Albert Meintjies all contributed.

I got in my drummer and bassist who I prefer to work with [Thats Jonno Sweetman and Schalk Joubert, respectively]. And all the music I sort of created myself the soundscape, I pieced together. So that was the missing piece of the puzzle: to get other people to interpret what I made and put vocal and melody to it. Its vital, otherwise it becomes this one-sided thing. Like what Lenny Kravitz did in his first few albums he played all the instruments. And after a while it gets like you can hear its the same guy.

I just thought: Its just gonna add such a dynamic to the sound to just get guys to come and do it. And it definitely paid off. Its a case of trusting the professionals with what the professionals do.

Then the album swells to a close. Home No More, with repeated shouts of They say this house aint no home! This place aint home no more! is a true rock n roll expression of disillusionment, and Together represents the silver lining beyond. Its a very African-sounding anthem that rejoices in romantic love, but could also be read as a celebration of multicultural unity

0700083172594

AFP001

Albert Frost Productions, 2016

NEW / SEALED

C09

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