LISTEN TO GALACTIC’S INTO THE DEEP FEATURING MACY GRAY
OUT JULY 17 ON PROVOGUE RECORDS, ON TOUR NOW
*Photo Credit: Jim Arbogast Photography
Seminal New Orleans band Galactic debuts the title track from upcoming album, Into the Deep, out July 17 on Provogue Records. The track “features Macy Gray‘s powerful pipes at the front of the mix, is a fine example of Galactic’s songcraft, and it bodes well for the rest of the forthcoming Into the Deep LP,” says PopMatters. “‘Into the Deep’ is a snippet of Galactic at their most enthusiastic.” Listen to the track on SoundCloud below or PopMatters here.
Produced and arranged by band members Robert Mercurio and Ben Ellman, the LP features collaborations with artists they’ve made connections with over the past 20 years—including Macy Gray, Mavis Staples, JJ Grey, Ryan Montbleau, David Shaw of The Revivalists, Maggie Koerner, Brushy One String and Charm Taylor.
Galactic recently launched a Pledge Music campaign, giving fans a unique opportunity to purchase exclusive merchandise and experiences from the band including Skype music lessons, meet and greets and more. The campaign runs until album release on July 17 and the album is available for pre-order on iTunes here. For more information about the Pledge Music campaign, see here.
Currently on tour, Galactic is playing festivals across the country including recent sold out shows in their hometown at 2015’s Jazz Fest and Hangout Music Festival with upcoming shows at Electric Forest Music Festival, North Coast Music Festival, Jam Cruise and many more; a 4-night residency at Brooklyn Bowl in New York; and a performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. See below for the full tour itinerary.
In their twentieth year of exploring the musical possibilities born out of their work together as Galactic, Mercurio, Ellman, Stanton Moore, Jeff Raines and Rich Vogelhave created an album founded on elements of Galactic’s past, filtered through the lens of where they’re headed in 2015. On Into the Deep, the band draws inspiration from people and ideas that have long been close to the artists’ hearts and in turn, to the development of their sound. “We look for uniqueness and a quality that makes the people we collaborate with distinctively who they are,” Mercurio says of their collaborations on the album.
A key part of the creative spark comes from the teamwork of Mercurio and Ellman, whose ever-evolving production and arranging skills helped usher the band into a new phase of studio work beginning with Ruckus in 2007. A series of albums focused around specific concepts like Mardi Gras followed––From the Corner to the Block, Ya-Ka-May, Carnivale Electricos––as did collaborations with new guests hailing from worlds outside the one Galactic calls its own. “A lot’s changed in the songwriting and recording process,” explains Mercurio, “we don’t generally all get in a room and write a song collectively at this point…which I think has allowed everybody to compose ahead of time instead of composing improvisationally.” “The fact that we can make our own records now, that was certainly not possible in the early days,” says Ellman, “pre-Katrina, we got our own rehearsal space and then we ended up getting our own ProTools rig…since then we’ve been making our own records.” Of producing Into the Deep, Ellman continues on to say, “we’re just always trying to increase our skills as producers and songwriters and arrangers by trying new things. It’s an evolution.”
GALACTIC TOUR DATES
June 27 Electric Forest Festival
July 3 Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival
July 4 High Sierra Music Festival
July 5 High Sierra Music Festival
July 11 The Levitate Music Festival
July 17 The Pemberton Music Festival
July 18 Sioux Falls Jazz Fest
July 25 Fuji Rock Festival
INTO THE DEEP TRACK LISTING
Sugar Doosie
2. Higher and Higher ft. JJ Grey
3. Into the Deep ft. Macy Gray
4. Dolla Dive ft. David Shaw and Maggie Koerner
5. Long Live the Borgne
6. Right On ft. Charm Taylor
7. Domino ft. Ryan Montbleau
8. Buck 77
9. Does It Really Make a Difference ft. Mavis Staples
10. Chicken in the Corn ft. Brushy One String
11. Today’s Blues