Wabi Sabi change their tune (but keep it wonderfully weird) on their new album The Love Insane — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The Atlanta ensemble’s fourth full-length was created in a very different way than they’re used to. Known for their inspiring, high-energy live shows, this jazz-rock band thrive on the energy of working as a unit, but, according to vocalist, producer and bandleader Damian Cartier, the pandemic necessitated a different approach.
“This is the first of our albums that I have produced myself,” he says. “I was working on a couple of singles when Covid hit, and then I just started programming some new and old songs that I had never properly recorded. Then, one by one, I replaced all the parts with real Wabi Sabi musicians. We have never done an album this way, but Covid mixed with having a spare bedroom home studio seemed like the perfect time to try.”
With a formula that has worked well for nearly 25 years and through four albums, including a live double album, Wabi Sabi found themselves, like so many other musicians, learning new ways to screw together an album form its nuts and bolts rather than bouncing off each other. Cartier sees it as a positive thing, however, where all members came away with new skills and perspectives.
“It was such a departure from our last album which was a double ‘live’ album, and the other two albums we made in the studio,” Cartier says. “It was nice for me to be able to work on it at home, using any spare time I had learning, editing, mixing, and experimenting.”
Fans of the fun, funky and slightly spacey Wabi Sabi vibe won’t notice a difference in vibe between The Love Insane and earlier studio albums like Plays Well With Others and Attention! Damian Disorder. Even with the album being done in piecemeal, Wabi Sabi‘s psychedelic jazz jam band persona and ability to genre-hop is still alive and kicking, in part because Cartier took such an active hand in production, but he said it was a collaborative process as always.
“The horns, strings, and most of the lead vocals were cut at Brighter Shade Studios engineered by John Driskell Hopkins (Zac Brown Band), who had produced two of our earlier albums,” Cartier explains. “Wes Funderburk wrote all the brilliant horn and string arrangements.
“We love letting each song become its own personality. I think songs should each be their own thing and not have to fit with a label or genre… the songs come out as they first appeared out of the ether, and this band breathes such beautiful life into them. We have been making music together for 24 years, and I hope we get to keep doing just that for as long as possible.”
Each song being its own journey is certainly present in The Love Insane, and this beloved band is not hindered by genre or style. As the album goes from the lyric jazz rock of album opener The Truth to the smooth, junkyard country of the title track to the Steely Dan-in-a-spaceship-esque bop that is New Life, Wabi Sabi have kept up the quality and joy that make them an ATL favourite and set them amongst the pantheon of other great jam bands like Phish and Jimmy Buffet.”
Check out The Love Insane below, watch the videos for Space Time! and The Weirdo Blues above, and get some Wabi Sabi on their website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
