The pre-order for Rhythm Rust & Static opens this Friday (6 March) at 10am GMT, and we’re really excited to finally start sharing more about how this record came together.
When we started working on Rhythm Rust & Static, we decided to approach this album a little differently.
Usually we record everything in one focused block of time in the studio. This time the songs came together gradually throughout the year, which allowed the record to evolve naturally and gave each track the space to become what it needed to be.
We also set ourselves a creative limitation.
When we made Addicted To You, we recorded it as a six-piece band, because we knew we wanted to recreate that album live exactly as it sounded on the record. That meant bringing in two new band members and building those bigger arrangements with layered harmonies and instrumentation.
With Rhythm Rust & Static, we wanted to explore the opposite idea… something rawer, more stripped back and more intense.
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Part of that inspiration came from recording “Soulbreaker” for the Matt Long tribute album. That track naturally leaned towards a more stripped-back arrangement, and it sparked the idea of exploring that sound further.
Our drummer James Fox is also a multi-instrumentalist and co-writer on the album, and after how much we enjoyed our duo tour, we started thinking how fun it would be to take that intimacy and just expand it slightly, bringing Foxy along and touring this record as a three-piece.
We also worked again with our longtime producer Adam Bowers, who co-wrote the songs with us and, as always, was instrumental in shaping the sound of the record.
It creates a different energy on stage and keeps everything within the same limitations we used when recording the album.
But don’t worry… this doesn’t mean the six-piece shows are disappearing! We absolutely love playing with the full band and we’ll definitely be back out as a six-piece again soon. It’s fantastic to have the freedom to explore these different ways of performing the music.
If you’d like to see where we’ll be heading out on the trio tour, you can find the dates >here<
Much Love
Grace & Aaron x
P.S. Baby Bondy is due any day now… so things are getting very exciting (and slightly unpredictable!) in the Bond household at the moment.