Track Dogs, the Madrid based band featuring 2 Irish, 1 American and 1 UK musician, will release their 4th studio album ‘Kansas City Out Groove’ on April 6th. It features the current single ‘I Don’t Wanna Ruin It’ which is playlisted on RTE Radio 1 and is receiving airplay on stations across the country. The album can be pre-ordered on all streaming outlets & trackdogsmusic.com now. Pre-orders receive 3 album tracks immediately including ‘The Deep End’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Ruin It’ & ‘Everything Went South’.
The band have also announced the first raft of tour dates with more TBA – on 30th August they will play Sugar Club in Dublin, followed by an appearance at Electric Picnic’s Trailer Park Stage at 8pm on 31st August and on 1st September they will play First Fruits Arts Centre in Watergrasshill, Co Cork.
‘Kansas City Out Groove’ features the band’s striking line-up of 4-part harmonies, acoustic guitar, ukulele and bass alongside cajón and trumpet with a bit of banjo and mandolin thrown in for good measure. The new album is a progression in their sound to a more robust Latin, ‘south-of-the-border’ & Americana feel, as they explain “This is something we’ve almost unconsciously being moving towards for some years. Living in Spain and being surrounded by such a richness in musical diversity eventually seeps under the skin. The lyrical themes have also gotten somewhat darker, counterbalancing the Spanish sun that’s in there too”.
‘Kansas City Out Groove’ was recorded in Madrid at Playground Studios on an analog Studer A80, originally used in Abbey Road in the 1970’s on sessions for Pink Floyd and The Beatles. Working with co-producer and Latin Grammy nominee Germán Gutiérrez, Track Dogs have finally achieved the sound they’ve spend 10 years kneading. Now the dough has risen – the perfect balance between their live gigs and the best in-studio production. Early reactions to the new songs include eclectic references including Manu Chao, Calexico & Juanes.
“We had recorded the previous 4 albums with the same producer and when he moved abroad we were forced to look for an alternative. Initially this was a scary prospect since we had become so comfortable working at Serenity Studios – so much so we named our last album after the recording sessions there. It was a blessing in disguise however that we found our way to Playground. We had recorded an ad jingle there the previous year and had been impressed with the sound and overall buzz of the place. Initially we decided to record three tracks; ‘The Deep End’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Ruin It’ and ‘Born in Love’ to “see how it goes” and two of those have gone on to be the first singles off the album. We were hugely impressed with the studio, thanks to the Gutiérrez brothers, and especially the sound of the Studer A80 analog machine. For a band like us, who tend to do everything somewhat old-school, it was like coming home. The Studer is an old Abbey Road machine from 1972 and we believe it was used by both Pink Floyd and for some of The Beatles remastering so, who knows what ghosts are in there!”
While Garrett and Robbie are the main songwriters in the band, it’s always a group effort when it comes to arrangements and structure and everyone will have left their individual mark on a song by the time it leaves the studio. The lyrical content of the album delves into strong desires & sentiments – guilt & escape, death and vengeance alongside cinematic tales of compromising situations & gritty realities.
TOUR DATES – more tba:
30th August – Sugar Club, 8 Lwr Leeson Street, Dublin 2 €15 Booking: 01 678 7188
31st August – Electric Picnic – Trailer Park Stage 8pm
1st September First Fruits Arts Centre Watergrasshill, Co Cork €20.00 Book online firstfruitsartscentre.ie
