Recorded at legendary Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, ‘WAYS’ is a culmination of the various influences that make up the band’s unique sound. ‘WAYS’ is made up of 3 different EPs, WAYS Black, WAYS White and WAYS Blue. Speaking on this unique way of putting an album together, frontman and guitarist, Chris Tapp says
“I thought it might be cool to construct the 12 songs for the record as 3 separate EP’s or collections of songs that basically were from the 3 areas of inspiration for the band. One, hard rock. Two, the blues. Three, country, western and folk ballads. Three different “WAYS” if you will. So I wrote the songs in groups separately, each with their own mindsets as separate pieces that could stand on their own, but also in the end combine into a 12 song album.”
The album was recorded at legendary Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis where many musical legends such as Johnny Cash, BB King, Howlin Wolf and Elvis Presley created rock n roll history. Speaking on this choice of studio and the experience of recording on such hallowed ground, Tapp adds
“Sam Phillips studio in Memphis was on my radar for the blues EP, but when I started to really research the albums that had been made there we found that it was the one studio where really all three of our influences had really been recorded there. One thing we didn’t take into consideration was that making a record using a vintage based studio with great analog gear also meant us dealing with 70 year old equipment which can be temperamental to say the least. What started out as a few days ended up being over a month of back and forth trips to Memphis to complete the album.
‘We cut all the tracks live in the same room our heroes like Jerry Lee Lewis, Howling Wolf and Bob Dylan had. I sang on Wolf’s old microphone, and we sat at Sam’s desk upstairs and made revisions in the same chair Elvis sat in. We made an honest blue collar rock and roll record with a tip of the hat to our heroes, and hopefully left another memory in those walls.”
‘WAYS’ has already received nearly 500,000 streams on Spotify. Two of the tracks released from the album so far have been chosen as “Track of the Week” in the UK’s Classic Rock Magazine. So far, tracks from the album have had over 20 major playlist adds across streaming platforms including Spotify’s ‘All New Rock’, ‘Southern Comfort’ and ‘Nu-Blue’, Apple Music’s ‘Breaking Rock’ and Deezer’s ‘La Grange: Blues Guitar Heroes’ and ‘Hot New Rock’ .
