With "Echoes Don't Lie" the psychedelic herbal rock Americana project The Electric Family releases its seventh studio album in 24 years - as usual again with numerous musical guests.
The Electric Family was formed in Bremen in 1996 for a performance at the Burg Herzberg Festival: singer and songwriter Tom "The Perc" Redecker gathered some well-known protagonists of the German music scene around him, including former rough-cut keyboardist Volker Kahrs, Amon-Düül-II percussionist Dieter Serfas, multi-instrumentalist Harry Payuta, guitarist Jochen Schoberth and drummer Torsten Glade. In 1997 the project released its debut "Family Show". But it wasn't until two years later that it really took off, both creatively and commercially, with the follow-up album "Tender", on which the regular band, which had shrunk to four members, was expanded by numerous guest musicians. The new album "Echoes Don't Lie" features Grobschnitt bassist and singer Milla Kapolke, extra wide and Grobschnitt drummer Rolf Möller alias Admiral Top Sahne, oud player Roman Bunka (known from Embryo or the Dissidenten) and dissident keyboardist and drummer Marlon Klein. In the interview The Perc spoke about the approach of his project and the advantages of hippieism.
eclipsed: "Echoes Don't Lie" is a rather mysterious title. What's that all about?
Tom Redecker: I'm afraid that no special significance is to be attached to it. Album titles are not very important. (laughs) Maybe the word "Echoes" is in there because everyone loves the masterpiece of the same name by Pink Floyd very much. I can't think of any other explanation.
eclipsed: All in all, about 20 musicians took over the studio handles in the course of last year's album production. How can you imagine the recording sessions?
Redecker: Improvisation is the linchpin of the action. The whole thing emerges during the recording. We don't practise that much. But we are really good friends. We have fun making music together. That way one thing leads to another.
eclipsed: Is The Electric Family some kind of hippie commune?
Redecker: Not really, we are too old for that. But we love this hippie atmosphere, this relaxed, peaceful. Still, you don't have to live together. The nice thing about hippiedom is that you don't have to think about things too much.
eclipsed: The recordings for the new record started in February 2019, why did it take so long to finish?
Redecker: We always took breaks. Each of the people involved took care of other projects in between, I, for example, took care of my label Sireena Records. And when everybody had the time and the desire to continue with "Echoes Don't Lie", we did. For me it was the perfect condition to record a casual yet concentrated record.