The Black Crowes Didn't Want to Make “The Dark Side of the Moon”

In a new interview with Pierre Robert of Philadelphia radio station 93.3 WMMR, the singer of Black Crowes Chris Robinson and the guitarist Rich Robinson they talked about the making of their latest album, “Happiness Bastards” (read the review here).

When asked how they managed to record “Happiness Bastards” in just two and a half weeks, Rich said, “Stick in and play… We had most of the songs in shape, but it's a band. We come in, we play.”

Brother Chris added: “There were a lot of songs where we were like, 'Try it twice as fast.

' 'Okay' 'Try it without this part'… We're not trying to do “The Dark Side Of The Moon”. We don't need to stay there for six months. We're making a really visceral kind of music, hopefully, a soulful, emotional connection that's spontaneous and alive.”

Chris goes on to say, “A lot of bands today, at a lot of shows, they don't even play through amps anymore. It's all digital stuff. And it's all great. Whatever you have to do to get what you're hearing and what you want to say, to me, it's great for other people and whatever the audience wants. We are old school, we play on stage. It's something that no matter how many problems and conflicts we have created for ourselves, the only one what I think we've always liked about music is the authenticity. We're good if we keep our honesty and purity like that.”

The interviewer pointed out that many artists make great records but these are so polished and manipulated that sometimes the rawness and magic of the original melody can be lost. Rich Robinson agrees with this thought. “They do it online. The producer makes the record and someone records the verse on the drums, then puts it online and then dubs all the verses, and then the chorus. He's playing a video game instead of allowing the band to do what they does and play his own thing. I mean, and that's ultimately the point, to let a band be a band.”

As Blabbermouth reports, Chris chimed in to add: “We're not even smart enough to do that. We want feel, we want it to feel a certain way. I mean, in all honesty, I think that's what the Black Crowes are. You feel the way we are. Growing up in rock and roll and life, if the way we felt was anger, then you will have anger. If the way we felt was frustration, then we are older and we have we have different tools and a different language and we have an experience that we can learn from and hopefully lead to some sort of wisdom. I think what Rich is talking about is the craft. artificial intelligence, I'm not interested in algorithms, I'm interested in expression and I'm interested in, as I said before, authenticity.”

THE Black Crowes Now I'm on tour to present the songs from the new album live “Happiness Bastards”. On stage with Chris and Rich the new version of the band featuring on bass Sven Pipien, Brian Griffin on the battery, Joel Robinow to keyboards and Isaiah Mitchell on the guitar. The band will also play in Italy, at Arcimboldi Theater in Milanon May 27.