Not satisfied with being the front man for the biggest band in the world, Mick Jagger has formed a new band with a number of high profile, yet somewhat left field collaborators. Entitled Super Heavy, the band’s line up includes Damian Marley, son of reggae legend Bob, Joss Stone and The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart. Of the new project, Jagger says “The four of us got together and thought we’d go into a studio and throw some things around, see what would happen, if we’d have fun. We didn’t know what kind of music we’d make. We knew it would be a laugh, because we all got on. But you can have a laugh and nothing comes out, y’know.”
The band also features the talents of AR Rahman, an award-winning film score composer who was involved in cinema gems such as Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. Jagger explained “Dave Stewart and I said to each other, ‘Let’s phone AR Rahman, he’s in town, that’ll be different’, then we had another continent involved.”
It’s not the first time that Stewart and Jagger have worked together, as the two collaborated on the soundtrack for the film Alfie, while Jagger also collaborated on a track with Stone on the soundtrack.
“We’ve got some more reggae songs, some rock, some ballads, some soul music” Jagger explained. “We’ve got one song in Urdu, I managed to do one line in Urdu, only one! It’s not world music per se, a Womad festival kind of thing. It’s a much more accessible style, a lot of dancey things.” Of the group’s song writing process, Jagger explains “We’d all leap in with our ideas, getting excited about one another. We’re four vocalists, we’ve never worked like that before. It’s great because the whole burden’s not on you, and that made it fun. There are a lot of different musical styles, maybe even some we’ve invented.”
So will Stones fans be able to relate to this new project? Jagger assures us: “If you’re a Rolling Stones fan there’s definitely stuff you can relate to. Other stuff that you can’t relate to so much, maybe if you listen you’ll enjoy it. I don’t think it’s so far off the beaten track that you can’t understand it.”
Jagger also hinted that the band may go out on the road, therefore putting back the long rumoured Stones 50th Anniversary Tour next year. He says “If people really like it, we will. If they don’t like it we won’t! We haven’t planned to do a tour or anything, but if people really like it maybe we will. We’d love to get together and play some of it live.”
