Melbourne based roots legends Blue King Brown late last year released their LP Born Free, a collection of 10 politically charged blues/ roots gems.
Recorded between Melbourne’s renowned Sing Sing Studios and on location at Tuff Gong studios in Kingston, Jamaica (famous for playing host to a number of reggae talents including the one and only Bob Marley).
The record was produced by local music veteran Mista Savona and ARIA-winning Styalz Fuego
while multi-Grammy-winner James ‘Bonzai’ Caruso handled mixing duties across Australia and the US.
The third release from the collective, Born Free is potentially the bands strongest and most cohesive release yet, ahead of the Born Free album launch and festival tour, the band’s vocalist and guitarist Natalie Rize gave us a track by track run down on this can’t miss Aussie release.
Rize Up
“The first single of the album, we recorded this one in the old school style, to 2inch tape at one of our favorite locations, Melbourne’s Sing Sing Studios. Capturing the roots reggae feel of ‘Rize Up’ onto the recorded format was important to us and we had a lot of fun using all the vintage microphones, amps and instruments that Sing Sing has on offer. Lyrically this track captures the underlying theme of the whole project, and that is for humanity to keep waking and Rizing Up reclaiming their power, their future, their dignity and their Freedom. ‘Rize Up’!”
All Nations
“‘All Nations, One People, One Destiny’. Yes we are all connected in this earthly life experience, interconnected to all that lives and breathes on this planet… Our energies linked, our futures and destinies entwined. We recognize these things, remind ourselves of them and celebrate them both through our music and our art and our activism. We worked on the music of All Nations with Melbourne based producer Styalz Fuego.
He brought some fresh ideas to the table. The video for ‘All Nations’ was filmed in the jungles and streets of Vanuatu and is a showing of support for the West Papuan fight for self-determination, Freedom and Justice. We work closely with the West Papuan community both on stage and off, to raise awareness and shine a bright light on the ongoing human rights abuses happening on Australia’s doorstep in West Papua. We will continue to use our music and voices to support our West Papuan sisters and brothers through their fight for Freedom until we see that they are truly Free, to determine their own destiny. Papua Merdeka – Free West Papua!”
One Sign (feat Logan Bell Katchafire)
“One of the slower jams on the album, the sweet vocals of Logan added all the depth of texture we were seeking for this song. We recorded ‘One Sign’ over approx two year period, slowly building all the parts together. The chorus and music were written in most part by our bass player Carlo, and additional musical and production works by our good friend Mista Savona who worked with us on production for a good part of the album.”
Renegade
“Renegade calls out to all, to recognise the important roll that indigenous wisdom has had in keeping the environment healthy and the even more vital role it has in achieving a return of healthy people and planet over profits and exploitation of land and water by governments and other corporations and corporate interests. “We are not the enemy, we are the Majority”… the system we live in has for too long convinced us to focus on what makes us different instead of what makes us as a global community, the same.”
FYAH
“I started writing this song on the shores of Santo, Vanuatu with my West Papuan sisters doing some sweet impromptu harmonies. We immediately fell in love with the feeling and energy of this track and in fact the second verse was originally in Bislama, the pigeon english language of Vanuatu. After first recording it in Australia, we felt that we didn’t capture the island reggae feel we were reaching for so we decided to go for it again in Kingston Jamaica. It was recorded and produced at Bob Marleys’ Tuff Gong Studios by ‘Notis’ a hot production team in Kingston, Jamaica.”
One People
“‘One People’ is the flagship song of my current thoughts, feelings, reactions, hopes, truths, intentions, dreams and philosophies. If there was one song that I could get the whole world to listen to off this album, it would be this One.
This was the last song we recorded for the album, whilst in Jamaica, I was just chilling on the couch playing this song, and Carlo was like, we should record that song just like that, stripped back and raw.”
Righteous Ones (feat Jesse Royal)
“Another co-production with Notis, ‘Righteous Ones’ was recorded in Jamaica on one of our earlier visits there. We had recorded it and decided to get a guest artist on it, but we hadn’t decided on exactly who to approach about the collaboration. One of my favourite artists coming out of Kingston was and still is Jesse Royal, I was fairly new to his works but instantly fell in love with his tone and vocal style.”
Like A Lion
“Programmed and co produced in Melbourne with Mista Savona, ‘Like A Lion’ was one of the first reggae dubstyle jams we got off the ground. From demo to live horn section, and into the full sonic width it has now. All of the tracks on Born Free except ‘All Nations’, are mixed by James ‘Bonzai’ Caruso, he is a great mix engineer with the right vibe and feeling of the music and intention. We love working with him as he always brings the goods from the mixing desk.”
Babylon A Fall (feat The Congos)
“The Congos were in Melbourne for AWME (Australasian World Music Expo) one November, they are a legendary all male vocal group from Jamaica and we were thrilled they were in the country let alone in our hometown. We linked up with them and had them over at our house and home studio just to hold a vibes, have some food, show them some hospitality and chill together. The vibe was right, they were happy to meet some Australian artists and relax in our yard with good food and music, we opened up the studio and the vibes flowed, Carlo had written a riddim (music bed track) and chorus inspired by The Congos, so he opened up the session and let them see if they felt like singing on it….almost immediately Cedrick one of the 4 elders of the group, started humming and vibing a part on it.”
Educate The Masses
“I had written this acoustic song previous to really focusing in on the songs that would be on the album, this one was not on that list. Mista Savona was at our studio working on the album and heard me playing this in one of the rooms, he suggested that we record it and put it on the album… so we did… having an acoustic track or 2 to added to the dynamic of the project as a whole and also gives an opportunity to hear the stripped back simplicity and strength of just the vocal and the guitar. Which is where a lot of our songs are seeded. ‘Educate The Masses’ is about reclaiming our education, our current system operates in a homogenous indoctrination style, this puts barriers on our ability to think beyond this paradigm, to think truly free.”
Upcoming Shows
January 15 – Hi Fi, Melbourne
January 16 – The Metro, Sydney
January 17 – The Gov, Adelaide
April 5 – East Coast Blues & Roots, Byron Bay
April 18 – Red Hill Auditorium w/ Michael Franti
Tickets and info: www.bluekingbrown.com
