I first starting recording bands, giving people the impression I was an engineer, simply because I’d spent my college tuition on recording equipment. ~Lovett
Ben Lovett, no not the guy from Mumford & Sons, but the one famous for composing musical scores for films, has finally released his debut album called 'Highway Collection' (available now on iTunes). The album also includes a series of musical hook ups from bands like The Avett Brothers, The Mars Volta, and Cursive to Spiritualized and The Sonos Quartet.
Lovett's phenomenal debut album is like a road trip...a diary of the adventures of the open road. Lovett describes it like this: " [I was] chasing these songs across the country...seeking out friends and musicians from one coast to the other to help pull them into focus. I wasn’t aware at first we were starting a band or making an album, it just happened along the way. I had nowhere to be and anywhere to go so I lived out of my car and drove wherever it went, and the only thing that seemed worth doing then was anything I hadn’t done before. I had never attempted making a record of my own songs so that’s what I attempted to do. Each song here is a different part of another life, and each time there was different group of people around to make it, some were lovers, some were strangers, but all were friends by the end of it. I’m not even sure I got the names of all the people who participated but I got most of them. Not one song was recorded all in one place, but most of it was found along the road somewhere between California and Florida with a few stops in between and at some point I would up back in Georgia and found the last piece I was looking for was right back where I started."
'Highway Collection' is an eclectic offering that brings you on a musical journey that covers a lot of ground and a lot of musical styles. It solidifies Lovett's talent for songwriting and producing. With each listen I find something different every single time that catches my attention. And the songs? Well they stay with you for a long time.
Needless to say this album has been on repeat a lot on my iPod the last few weeks.
“Heartattack” is the second single and the music video shows us that the big day of required love can be a fun-loving rock party without all that over-the-top mushy stuff. It's a full-out foot-stomping dance party...just the way we like. (For those big on the random cameo appearances in videos, “Heartattack” features indie film actress Amy Seimetz, multi Grammy award-winning Country star Dierks Bentley and of course, the abominable snowman from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer).
Lovett’s first music video for “Eye Of The Storm” was an epic undertaking in that it took nearly a full year to produce...
You can follow Ben Lovett on Twitter @thebenlovett
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