We spent this past weekend at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village, New York City. Many of us grew up or went to school around here and walked by the studio more times than we can count as we were just getting started. It was a dream come true to make some good music there.
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We were there on the invitation of Italian artist Lorenzo "Jovanotti" Cherubini. He is making his 16th record and working with a lot of different artists from around the world. We struck up a friendship a few years back playing at Austin City Limits Festival and are finally getting to get to know each other in the studio.
We started off with lyrics he wrote to one song, with rhythms inspired by a few particular Antibalas songs. The rhythm section went in on Saturday and recorded that song, as well as a new instrumental that Lorenzo wrote new lyrics for. The next day, the horn section recorded parts over those two songs, as well as a more romantic ballad. The songs are all very different tempo and feel-wise. It was fun coming up with two really good, different things in such a short amount of time.
The sound was amazing. Having done a lot of stuff at Daptone Studios, with all-analog recording equipment, some of us had apprehensions about how good stuff would sound on a digital system working with engineers who we've never worked with before. It was fantastic-not only how good it sounded but how quickly the sound was dialed in. The engineers Pino Pischetola and house technician John Horne were as good as it gets.
The album comes out in early 2015. To find out more about Jovanotti, check the following links:
- Soleluna (Official Website)
- JovaTV: Lorenzo's web tv channel with conversations w/ cultural figures, tour diaries, videos, studio work, etc.
- Twitter: @lorenzojova
