Nine songs over three EPs were “written while I healed,” Meza says. “Their style came out of necessity.” RIYL: Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Serge Gainsbourg.
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Dani Meza of the crushedvelvets as photographed by Cristopher Cichocki
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the crushedvelvets | “Like I Do”
Track Listing:
02. Intertwined
03. Mosaic
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the crushedvelvets | About
After citing Al
Green, Marvin Gaye, and Prince as influences, it is only
natural that Dani Meza of the crushedvelvets concludes, “These
songs are all about the groove.”
The nine new tunes by the crushedvelvets are presented three at a time, as if placed on a
dark club’s bar like mixed drinks over the course of a mild summer evening.
EP 1 is out now, with the second arriving Sept. 2, and the third on Oct. 21.
For Meza, getting
to that stone cold groove meant first getting his own groove back, and not just
in the sense of the popular turn of phrase. Meza literally lost his ability to write and perform following an
aneurism and stroke.
“These new songs and style came out of necessity,” Meza confides. “The incident forced me
to change my perspective on how to write and perform. My vocal delivery had to
be more laid back and the groovy pace of these songs keeps me from over-stimulating
myself.”
The circumstances surrounding these recordings are out
of the ordinary, but for listeners, they are even more alive with Meza’s soul and survival because of it.
“These songs were written while I was healing and the
influences on this sound and these songs comes from the variety of musicians
and bands that I listened to while I was recovering,” he says.
In addition to the aforementioned artists, Meza also mentions Serge Gainsbourg, Julee
Cruise, and Erik Satie.
“I wanted to combine my love of R&B and Soul music
with surreal sounds and imagery,” he explains.
With this concept in mind, Meza knew he should reach out to producer Chris Schlarb, an artist in his own right with several releases on Sufjan Stevens’s Asthmatic Kitty label, as well as
production credits for releases on Asthmatic
Kitty, Joyful Noise, Jealous Butcher and many more.
“Chris knew
exactly what I was trying to achieve and gathered the players he knew would
bring my new songs to life,” Meza
says.
Musicians Davin
Givhan (Bass & Guitar), Ben
Lumsdaine (Drums & Percussion), and Heather Sommerhauser (Keyboards & Backing Vocals) join Meza on Guitar, Keyboards, and Vocals.
“At our very first session, the songs seemed to fall
into place on their own. I had no ambitions other than capturing the groove,” Meza remembers.
In conclusion, Meza
drops an inspiring reveal of his continuing ambition on the other side of
emerging from recovery.
Following the release of these three EPs, he plans to take
the songs he amassed during his healing and head back into the studio to start
working on “one of the many albums I have ready to record.”
The first of three new three-song EPs by the crushedvelvets is streaming now. EP 2 arrives on Sept. 2 with EP 3
following on Oct. 21.
Dani Meza of the
crushedvelvets is available for interviews. Contact Josh
Bloom at Fanatic for
more information.
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the crushedvelvets | Links
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Josh Bloom at Fanatic
Promotion | Contact
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