It was a genuine privilege to be a part of bringing ‘Let’s Hear It For The King’ to life.
Sonically it’s an incredible album, whilst musically and lyrically it showcases a band flexing muscle on what they know, whilst simultaneously pushing boundaries of sound and subject that ardent fans didn’t expect them to tackle.
That was the remit I challenged the band and specifically Dan with. In my opinion the Dan Reed Network were a band who in their first iteration defied genres and definition. I thought it was important to capture that sentiment and use that as the focal point to really drive the direction of the music.
This is what I wrote for the first press release:
Returning to their original musical vision, Let’s Hear It for The King promises “to challenge beliefs, smash down existing protocol, and build something new out of the shrapnel.”
Which lead to Dan saying this about the record. I think this highlights clearly
“We are chomping at the bit to get out there and bring people what we genuinely believe is the heaviest, funkiest and most melodic DRN album to date,”
The writing process itself started almost a year before we made it into ‘The Commune Studio’ in Portland, Oregon in January 2020. All songs had been fine tuned at the demo stage that meant the recording process was focused on creating the best sounds and getting the best takes of everything.
One specific consideration was the rhythm guitar tone. It’s something we all agreed that delivering the bands live sound had never quite been nailed on previous records and was something that could help define LHIFTK as a modern sounding record.
Serendipitously, I came across a ’91 Gibson Les Paul whilst collecting a mic package to use for the album from Sean Norton. It felt and sounded incredible and I knew we had to use it on the record. All of Brion’s rhythm tracks were cut with that guitar and in places doubled with Dan playing Rob’s Charvel Sans Dimas. All through a Marhsall Silver Jubilee head. It sounded killer in the room and I love hearing it all over the album.
The album achieved a huge amount of success. The album was listed in Classic Rock Magazine’s and Classic Rock Germany’s top 50 albums of the year.
Reviews were almost exclusively exceptional with many critics embracing the aggressive and harder edge that the band adopted lyrically and musically throughout the record without ever losing sight of it’s core values.
Ultimately, I’m never going to tell an artist how or what to write but I believe in this instance I stirred some intent within the band to focus their mentality to push boundaries again.
Blabbermouth had this to say whilst giving the album an 8/10 review:
‘The essence of this band’s music remains largely unchanged from those early albums, but contemporary production and perhaps a little dash of fuck-it-why-not defiance have led them to make the most diverse record of their careers.’
Classic Rock’s Magazine followed with another 8/10 review:
Dan Reed Network’s new album is funky, dripping with melody, and a joy to hear. Funk-rock lives.
Lead single ‘Starlight‘ was named as Classic Rock Magazine’s ‘Track Of The Week’ as well as being ‘A-Listed’ on Planet Rock Radio for 12 weeks. The band were given the cover of ‘PowerPlay Magazine.’
To date, the album has amassed 700,000 streams on Spotify alone so far and the 4 singles have reached 250,000 views on Youtube.
We spoke extensively about artwork and branding for this release. I felt it was really important to focus on a strong, visceral image that represented the intent and feeling around the album. That would make it instantly identifiable, create conversation and intrigue about the release.
We also had a great tour lined up, co-headlining a string of UK dates with Finish Glam rock band ‘Reckless Love‘ who were also releasing their new album ‘Turborider‘ at the time.
The feeling was that after a hugely successful time celebrating the past on ‘The Big 3-0’ tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of SLAM alongside contemporaries GUN & FM we wanted to display the new album to a younger audience, which we strongly believed it would connect strongly with!
Sadly COVID prevented these shows happening as intended and the band are yet to tour on this album.
