When you hear The Werks, you start wondering where they had been your whole musical life. They play with a sound so danceable but still 
remain technical enough to please the ear of the most pretentious jam fans. Using mind-blowing fills, technical rhythm signatures and stop on a dime time changes while melding and manipulating genres, crossing into territories seldom tread, The Werks consistently deliver eargasm after eargasm.
When I heard The Werks were releasing an album, my mind instantly began to wander. Boasting a large repertoire of music only heard live, I could only guess what tracks would not only be laid out on their new album, but what they would even sound like. After a couple weeks of bouncing thoughts through this often cavernous mind of mine, I gave Chris Houser, lead guitarist of The Werks a call so I might pry whatever clues I could from him!
Immediately jumping into things, Chris told me how excited the band was about the new album. Chris said the band was pleased with the overall process and how happy they were about not having to push back a deadline. Werking (pun intended) hard to streamline the process, setting goals along the way, the band breezed through the studio in a mere three weeks, laying down an entire album of tracks. I was even more pleased when he started getting into the more specific tracks on the album. “It’s a taste of the old Werks, what we have become and also, I think, where we come from.”
Chris started teasing my musical sensibilities when he started talking about “Diving into the percussive mind of Rob Chafin” to produce “a percussive track all about Rob” their drummer. My ears immediately perked up as he went on to tell me they also laid down a track with their previous bassist Chuckie Love. I knew a Werks fan aplenty that would be anxious to hear that track! He went on to tell me about how they also worked hard and put a lot of thought into the flow of the album. “We took into consideration how well the songs moved from one song into another because people would be listening to the album from beginning to end.”
Being aware of the many faces of their music, I was moved when Chris told me a song he wrote about his father would be on the album. It’s an emotional song that is touching, and like Chris, is genuine and very real. The band decided to dedicate the album, at the request of his fellow band members and none of his own, to his late father Mark Houser. “Ya know when you hear “we want to dedicate this album to your Dad.” I mean, it wasn’t even my idea! It’s just an amazing feeling to have that come from your band members. If he were alive today he would be proud to have his name on the album. We all feel like we really did him proud with this one.”
“From an old school funk feel; to this ambient, atmospheric percussion track; Rob doing this kick ass, balls to the wall drum solo; to this kind of bittersweet melancholy mood; into electronica style tracks. The real meat of the album though is a jazzy rock kind of foundation. Ya know, there are just a lot of different feels on this album.” If you have heard The Werks, this also is reminiscent of their performances. They never cease to surprise and throw curve balls with their set lists leading to the logical conclusion that The Werks album would be no different.
Chris made sure to make mention of their producer, Jordan Schneider. “It was the first album he produced for us. He gave us exactly what we needed. He really made the process of getting this album done easy for us. While we were in the van, driving down the road to a gig, listening to what we had laid down, we would call him up and tell him what we wanted to change and he would get it done”.
“I also gotta mention Ron Pease. What he brought to the table also made this album great. He really was there for us and helped bring the whole album together in such a great way. I’m really thankful that he was in there with us. As well as where we recorded the album. We recorded with Refraze Studios in Dayton, Ohio. It was a really comfortable space to record the album in. The studio was just top notch!”
Which left me wondering, what is the name of the album? Chris was just being cruel at this point. “Well it’s a self-titled album, it’s just going to say The Werks on it, but (giggling) based on the album art is going to be called something else! I don’t want to give it away so, I’ll just leave it at that.”
Start looking for the new album “The Werks”. Aptly scheduled to be released on April 20th at the Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky with Freekbot and Benigma . The party will be sure to please your audio and visual senses…
Read about the release party here: http://www.facebook.com/thewerksmusic?ref=ts#!/events/342481409099706/
