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That's really where our sound has come from. The dance floor is already going and we have to slam it for an hour and a quarter and give them something extra compared to what the DJ is giving them. -Eddie Roberts |
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In the U.S., the music of The New Mastersounds is largely heard only live on stage, but in other parts of the world things are different, where their music is now part of the club scene. "With all the 7-inch singles and vinyl we have put out, a lot of DJs around the world have our music. You can be in a club anywhere and all of a sudden a couple of tracks come on and you see everyone dancing," says Roberts. "That's how I learned my production sound. It was being in a club and hearing a track come on and saying, 'I wish I put more bass on that' or 'I wish I'd pressed it a bit louder.'"
 Simon Allen by Yusuke Kitamura |
In many ways the role of a funk band like The New Mastersounds in the U.K. is closer to that of a DJ, and it's up to the live sound engineer to push the bass or volume to satisfy the demands of the party. "At the places we tend to play in the U.K. there is usually only one band on the bill with DJs on before and after. We are there to play for an hour and a quarter and that's it," Roberts says. "That's really where our sound has come from. The dance floor is already going and we have to slam it for an hour and a quarter and give them something extra compared to what the DJ is giving them. When we're done we give it back to the DJ and the people carry on dancing for another three hours or more. And we usually go out and join them."
When playing in the States, The New Mastersounds try to pack dance floors in the same way, but without the benefit of a DJ they have to shoulder the load and play extended sets, much to the delight of their rabid American fan base.
"We have always found it weird when we come to the States and all of a sudden when the band stops everyone leaves," says Roberts. "We obviously had to rethink our sets because you can't just play for an hour and have everyone leave. So, we started to get into this thing where we'd play longer and longer. It got all the way up to four hours one time, just keeping the dance floor going all that time, like a DJ would."
In order to keep up that kind of intensity it's critical that the band work well together. There is a certain "group-think" that is required to move the music into the territory that beat hungry dancers insist on. In late 2006 the band parted ways with longtime B3 player Bob Birch, who left the band to focus on teaching and settle down a bit. He was replaced by another Leeds local and friend, Joe Tatton.
"Joe fits in well because he knows where we are coming from musically and he has played with all of us at one time or another," says Roberts. "He is also familiar with the DJ/funk scene we come out of as he has been around it as well."
 Shand & Roberts by Dieter Van Holder |
After Tatton joined, The New Mastersounds toured for nearly a year before deciding that it was time to refocus the band's sound and get back to the deep funk roots that first inspired them. They parted ways with horn player Rob Lavers, who had joined them on recent tours, and set to work on rediscovering the group-think the quartet needed to thrive.
"You've got to get the four piece right and really working. Then you can add things on top of it," Roberts says. "We just felt that we needed to pull it back and really concentrate on the sound of the four. So, we did a lot of work on our European run in the fall, [during] soundchecks and things like that, just getting the sounds right and rearranging some stuff."
On their last pass through the States in November 2007, Roberts felt like things were hitting on all cylinders. "Everything was feeling really exciting and fresh again. The show in Denver with MOFRO was one of our musical highlights as a band. We slammed it! Everything fell into place and it just felt great."
The band has recently reentered the studio to try to capture this newfound energy on tape for an album currently slated for late spring release. If Roberts' enthusiasm about their current sound is any indication, we can expect another collection of the finest in nu-jazz and funk the scene has to offer. Until then, The New Mastersounds will continue to hone their skills, road test new compositions and fill dance floors at clubs from California to Colorado during a ten date tour this month.
Click here for full New Mastersounds tour dates.
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