This is it folks. This is the moment. You’ve been waiting since 2020 or 2019 or 2018 or 2017. You’ve been wondering what took so long. Maxwell Figarsky, Giordan Montero and myself are proud to announce that our new album, ‘Checkin the Mic’, will be dropping this January 2025!
This has been a 5 year process for us. We went into the studio with Scott Maass (Rogue Sound, Seattle) in December of 2019 to start putting these songs down. None of this stuff was specifically written for the album. These are all songs that we had been playing live for awhile and at that point it had been 2 years since we had put out a live album (Live from Sunbanks 2017), and a year since Giordan and I worked on our Americana Project (James and Montgomery EP 2018) and we had intended to put something together that wasn’t live, and showcase some original songs that hadn’t been on these two albums, but that we had been playing live for awhile.
It was really great working with Scott, we actually know each other through work outside of music and his laid-back attitude was really coherent to what I was looking for from this album. At that point, my experience with studio recording had left me worried that it would end up too sterile. As a band we are used to playing together live, and that’s where we really shine. I was hoping to get a sound and an environment on this record that would feel the most like our live shows, both because I think that’s our best performance, and because I think the audience gets a better representation that way. We have all seen a show live, and then went home and listened to the record and found out that it was completely different, or vise versa. I wanted to avoid that whole experience altogether. That being said, Scott was more than happy to just press record and let us do our thing. I was either not paying that much attention to the recording techniques at the time or I’ve completely forgotten over 5 years, but whatever he did in the recording and mixing process really gives me the live feel when I listen to the tunes off the record. It really feels like you are in the room with the band. We are really proud of that, and that’s exactly what we were looking for.
To the extent that I can talk about the recording process, I will say this: Everything on the album was done in either 1 or 2 takes. The title track, which is also the first track on the album, was done on the first take and it was the first song that we recorded in the studio. So what you hear when you drop the needle, or turn on the CD player, or cue it up on Spotify, is literally exactly what happened after we set up the microphones and pressed record. Furthermore, the only thing that was dubbed or recorded separately are the vocals. Guitar, bass, and drums are live in the room. Nothing was snipped or overdubbed or patched in. We had to track the vocals later due to studio space limitations (unfortunately it is not ideal to set up a vocal mic in the same room with a drum set).
If you haven’t noticed the significance of the timing, I’ll point it out to you. Since the recording of the album was mostly done in December 2019 and January 2020, we basically paused progress on completing anything due to the Covid pandemic. Everything took a halt including live shows (funding for the album) and after awhile things were complicated due to things like not being sure of which storage drive the files were on, which ones had had vocals tracked already and which ones had not, etc. It was not until summer of 2024 that I got back in touch with Scott about finalizing the vocal tracks as well as mixing and mastering.
The album is all original, written by me. All the tunes that will be coming out in this iteration feature myself on Guitar and Vocals, Giordan Montero on Bass and Vocals, and Maxwell Figarsky on Drums. Jack Gravalis was actually in the studio with us for a few sessions and we have 4 or so songs recorded featuring him on guitar as well, but when we got to mixing the album, we realized that the first 6 songs were already pushing the album length for an LP on vinyl. I thought that this studio album was pretty special, considering how long it took to put it together. So I decided to finalize it with these 6 songs, and we will decide what we are going to do with the rest later.
I think people that know the band will really like the track selection. It is a good representation of who we are as a band and what our original music is. Since winning the WBS Best New Blues Band award in 2014, we have been expanding the definition of what our original music means (are we even a blues band anymore?). The bluesiest song on the album is “Walkin the Cup” which draws from a lot of early blues influences, especially from Mississippi’s Terry Harmonica Bean who was a mentor and a supporter of mine when I was very young and learning to play blues music. There’s also a kind of funk/soul vibe that permeates the whole thing. We’ve got some of the upbeat fan favorites on there such as “Who Was the Iceman”, as well as at least one ballad.
The crown jewel of the album, and the title track is “Checkin the Mic”. I was inclined to put this song first because it was the first one recorded, and we finished it in one take, as I mentioned before; but the reason for naming the album (and doing all the graphic design and branding) based on this song was inspired by a story that happened during the summer.
We arrived to set up for a show at a place that we have been playing almost as long as we have been a band (over 10 years). I will mention that we had not played there in awhile. The bartender told me that he was telling his sister that Jesse James and the MOB would be playing and he was excited to see us. His sister remarked that she didn’t know what band that was. He responded “sure you do,” and began singing the chorus of the song, “check one two, checkin the mic,” and she immediately remembered who we were. So, in honor of people remembering the song more than the name of our band, the album is called ‘Checkin the Mic’.
Now for the important information: The album will be available for streaming starting on January 15th on some platforms (Apple Music) and January 16th on others (Spotify), due to how some treat release dates (midnight on which day?).
If you would like to pre-order LPs, CDs, or stickers, I have an online store available at this link: STORE LINK
If you pre-order something, I will ship it before the official album release, but I can’t tell you exactly when.
The official album release party will be at the Central Saloon in Seattle on January 16th. More information and tickets here: SHOW LINK
Mason Turner will be opening the show.
Special guests will include: Jack Gravalis and Nick Mardon.
Hope to see you there!
MOB News 