Yeah, it really is a great place. I’m actually a native of the New Orleans area. I grew up there.
Oh really?
Yeah.
Oh man. I love it. The best thing about doing a tour in The States is that whenever the tour is finished I just get myself a flight down to New Orleans. That was kind of my treat to myself at the end of a grueling few weeks. Yeah I love it, absolutely love it.
It really is the best. So yeah you’ve also got aside from the upcoming tour, you’ve also got a handful of New York area shows planned for the summer and fall, some of them at the original Brooklyn Bowl. Are you bringing the Boogaloo Bowl thing to the original Brooklyn Bowl as well or will that be kind of a different affair?
Well it might be. We could actually bill it as that. I hadn’t actually thought of that but that’s a good idea. Yeah, I’ll speak to Peter. When we put this thing together I was talking to him about coming over to the states and playing The Bowl and we couldn’t fit it in this time around. So we’re going to come over the beginning of July and then again the beginning of October because we’re sort of still close to finishing our new album, our third album which I hope to be ready for release in October. So I was thinking if we were going to release it in the states then there would be no better place for a release party than The Brooklyn Bowl.
So the new album that you guys are working on, what can we expect from that? Is it just going to be the 6 of you or will there be special guests?
Actually there is a special guest on percussion, a guy called Pete Eckford, who’s in his 60s and again I love working with older guys because they’ve been there, they’ve done it. But I just love to see that excitement still there and what they bring to the party. You know, he’s still got it. His congo and percussion playing is great. I think it adds a little spice to things. But we end this album very much on the dance floor. It’s going to be quite filthy. Put it like that.
We also did a couple more vocal tunes, one cover, one original. We got Brendan Reilly back after the last record and he did another amazing job. He’s got a great voice. The cover’s another Michael Jackson tune. We did a version of “Girlfriend” last time and I’m a big fan. We even got a load of friends in the studio and put together a gospel choir for the backing vocals on that. It was a lot of fun.
Some of the guys in The New Mastersounds once told me that the funk and soul scene over in Britain was a lot different than the funk and soul scene here in The States. How would you compare the two scenes?
Well I think size for start. There are a lot of soul and jazz fans in the UK but because we’re a tenth of the size of the US, the sort of scene is a tenth the size. So it’s very much an underground thing. There are pockets of scenes but it’s just not the same. The New Mastersounds have been fantastically successful in The States and they deserve it. They are a great band and that’s what I want to try and do. If I can emulate half their success in The States with The Filthy Six then I’d be happy, you know? But I think the scene over there, from what I gather, just seems to be a lot bigger and a lot more people are open to it. There are more bands and more options to perform. You know I think there’s only two or three soul or jazz festivals with the kind of funk element in the UK and you look at The States and there’s something going on the whole year. That’s another reason we kind of want to get our turn over there and see if we can get some people into our music.
Besides these upcoming tour dates and the new album, are there any other things on the schedule for you guys?
Well we’ve got this Booglaoo Bowl night, which we will be hosting and putting together every week so that’s going to be quite a lot of organizing. We’ve already got a great roster for the first couple of months. That’s going to keep us quite busy and we also got some festival gigs in the UK coming up over the summer. And to be honest as soon as this tour is over I’m going to have to start planning the album release tour, which will be in October-November time so it will be from one thing to another but it’s all worth it.
Are you guys planning on coming back to the states for the album release tour?
Yes absolutely. I would like to do the album release party in the states at The Brooklyn Bowl in October and fit in some dates around then. Hopefully we can get some East Coast dates. I’m glad the tour in the South is our first trip over there because I love the South. The people, the food and the whole atmosphere is fantastic. So I’m thrilled we’re doing that but it was a bit too much of a stress to fit in any east coasts dates at this point. I’m looking forward to trying to put that little tour together in October.
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