Tim Smith and his son Kurtis Smith have been working on bass and drums for eleven years, providing the rhythmic basis for frontman Jason Barwick to really let off steam. They manage to do this live at almost every concert, so that Brew novices stagger happily out of the club and are happy to have discovered a contemporary blues rock-soaked band. A band that has created something very lively on the sound basis of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Led Zeppelin. Less euphoric is the view of their results in the studio. Apart from a few song pearls, the band only managed to score with "A Million Dead Stars" (2010) over the years. Can the new recording "Shake The Tree" keep up with that...?
Tim Smith: That's no way for you as a musician to approach a new record! You sit down, look at your song ideas, and when it feels really good for a new album, you take a break from the stage and try to capture the songs in the best possible way.
eclipsed: "Shake The Tree" sounds at least a little rougher than the albums before. Was that your plan, or was it inevitable?
Smith: "Control", the album before it, was already planned, just because it is considered a concept work from a lyrical point of view. On "Shake The Tree", as you can see, we wanted to take a more impetuous approach again.
eclipsed: What makes you stand out live is your irrepressible energy, but also the musical licentiousness, which leads Jason to spend minutes of time and space without really paying attention to whether this is all song useful or not. But this unpredictability is missing in the studio and is only brought back into balance to a limited extent through racy songs. How do you feel about that?
Smith: As far as our live concerts are concerned, I am very happy that they are experienced as you have described it. I disagree completely with our albums. They are our second mainstay and consciously lead their own lives. The point is to define ourselves musically as an independent band. Of course, all the rock bands of the sixties and seventies are the basis for our sound. But let's go a few steps further. "Shake the tree's a good example. It is a modern rock album with the instruments of a classic rock trio.
