Bluesfest to host Zac Brown’s new band for Aus premiere
PRESS RELEASE:
Today, Bluesfest Byron Bay, Australia’s iconic and multi awarded 5 day Easter Festival (13thto 17thof April 2017), is bringing you Sir Rosevelt, Zac Brown’s brand new band for an Australian Premier at Bluesfest on Easter Saturday 15thof April!
This is the only show in Australia and the very first performance on our shores! Zac Brown fans will be able to see Zac perform 3 times at Bluesfest, once with his new band Sir Rosevelt on Easter Saturday (15thof April) and twice as Zac Brown Band on Easter Sunday (16thof April) and Easter Monday (17thof April).
The southern music group Sir Rosevelt includes Zac Brown, Niko Moon and Ben Simonetti. Yes, THAT Zac Brown, front man of the GRAMMY Award-Winning Zac Brown Band. Sir Rosevelt is a new addition to Brown’s musical world, a natural progression of his musical palate as an artist. Fans are not losing Zac Brown Band, they’re gaining Sir Rosevelt. Combining the talents of Brown, Moon and Simonetti, their new self-titled album is a mix of pop, dance, acoustic instrumentation and southern sensibility.
Link to Sir Rosevelt song:
About Sir Rosevelt:
It was through working together on the 2015 Zac Brown Band release, JEKYLL + HYDE, that the group Sir Rosevelt was born. They tapped into their newfound creative synchronicity on the Zac Brown Band tour bus, which became their ‘studio.’ Inspired by the full-throttle dynamics of EDM and the elasticity of pop, Brown, Moon and Simonetti pulled influence from many musical styles and artists, focusing their writing and recording efforts to create the cohesive sound and body of work that is Sir Rosevelt.
“To me, that’s what makes a real artist – It’s natural to want to create music that’s similar to what we like to listen to,” Brown says. “[Sir Rosevelt] has become the outlet we have for everything outside of the homegrown roots of ZBB. I have no plan to abandon everything that we’ve ever done, but there are literally millions of different sounds out there, it’s like different colors to paint with.”
Sir Rosevelt will not be taking the place of ZBB, who have just announced a new album, with which they will return to their roots. Instead, Sir Rosevelt furthers the musical exploration Brown started on JEKYLL + HYDE, which found contributions from Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, Sara Bareilles as well as Moon and Simonetti. “For hardcore [ZBB] fans that would like to hear more music from us, this is not taking anything away from that.” Brown says.
All three members are excited by the creative freedom the project affords them. Furthering Brown’s metaphor, Sir Rosevelt takes every color available and throws them together in a brilliant sonic Jackson Pollack, like on the utterly enjoyable and bizarre “Robert Baker,” an old-school dance jam laden with synthesizers.
Moon, who met Brown a decade ago, has been a collaborator ever since. He has co-written multiple hits with Zac including ZBB’s #1 rock single “Heavy is the Head” and #1 country single “Beautiful Drug,” which pioneered their experimentation with electronic and pop sounds. From the trio’s onset, Moon realized there was something special about Sir Rosevelt. “It was awesome, it was new, different, and nerve-wracking because we weren’t sure what it would be like writing it in a different way than usual,” he says. “We did probably about eighty percent of the record on a laptop on Zac’s bus. It’s amazing how powerful technology is these days; you can create anything you hear in your head.”
Simonetti, who in addition to writing the music also created the beats and programming, comes from a pop background, so he felt right at home working on this record. “I’ve worked on albums for many pop stars in LA at major studios, my first session ever was with Quincy Jones. For all of these, I did mostly engineering, vocal recording, editing and production work,” he says. “The process was more familiar to me because of similarities to the pop music I’ve worked on in LA. It’s different than country music, which is put together by finding a tune on a guitar and then writing music to it. This album was centered around beats, and we wrote the music to those instead.”
With Sir Rosevelt, Brown recognizes that the possibilities before them extend beyond boundaries. It has become a channel for unfettered creative freedom and musical inspiration. Brown is excited by the doors Sir Rosevelt has opened in exploring potential collaborations within the dance music and pop worlds. “It is a new land to conquer and presents us with new alliances to make and new fans to reach,” says Brown, and they cannot wait to take the party to the stage as well. “I feel like in the live show we’ll be able to expand these songs a lot to really make it exciting. Visually, a lot of the electronic artists have interesting video and other content like that. We want to bring something really fresh to the table as far as what will accompany our live performances. We’re definitely gonna have dancers to bring the energy onstage, and we’ll have props as well, which will be part of the art,” says Brown.
Zac Brown Band Schedule Change: Sir Rosevelt will be performing on Easter Saturday and the Zac Brown Band show has been moved from Easter Saturday (15thof April) to Easter Sunday (16thof April). The reason for the schedule change? It’s a very heartfelt one, as Zac Brown explains in his clip (link below). Jimmy De, who is a key player on the fiddle and vocals for Zac Brown Band has to be by his wife’s side in the US, who will be giving birth by Caesarean and cannot be in Australia before Sunday 16thof April!
Great news is that Zac Brown fans will be able to see Zac play three times at Bluesfest 2017, once with his new band Sir Rosevelt on Easter Saturday (15thof April) and twice as Zac Brown Band on Easter Sunday (16thof April) and Easter Monday (17thof April).
Bluesfest advises that Saturday Festival visitors can move their Saturday ticket to any other day, should they wish to do so, by calling the Bluesfest office on 02 66858310.
Message from Zac Brown:
http://bit.ly/zacbrownbandbluesfest
Sir Rosevelt joins the 2017 Artists already announced!
NEIL YOUNG + PROMISE OF THE REAL
BARRY GIBB
SANTANA
ZAC BROWN BAND
PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND PERFORM HORSES
PATTI SMITH AND HER BAND ACOUSTIC
MARY J. BLIGE
THE LUMINEERS
BUDDY GUYEXCLUSIVE
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS
MADNESS
BONNIE RAITT
MAVIS STAPLESEXCLUSIVE
BILLY BRAGG
BILLY BRAGG AND JOE HENRY
SIR ROSEVELT
JETHRO TULL
MILES ELECTRIC BAND
TROMBONE SHORTY AND ORLEANS AVENUE
RICKIE LEE JONES
GREGORY PORTER
SNARKY PUPPY
SLIGHTLY STOOPID
ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES
CORINNE BAILEY RAE
BETH HARTEXCLUSIVE
LAURA MVULA
MICHAEL KIWANUKA
ANDREW BIRD
RHIANNON GIDDENS
BOOKER T. PRESENTS THE STAX RECORDS REVIEW
EXPERIENCE JIMI HENDRIX
GALLANT
ROY AYERS
ERIC GALES
MUD MORGANFIELD
DEVON ALLMAN
MAX JURY
NAHKO AND MEDICINE FOR THE PEOPLE
TURIN BRAKES
BLIND BOY PAXTON
TREVOR HALL
JAKE SHIMABUKURO
DUMPSTAPHUNK
THE RECORD COMPANY
THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
TONY JOE WHITE
THE SUFFERS
NIKKI HILL
THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS
JEFF LANG
RAY BEADLE & THE SILVER DOLLARS
LLOYD SPIEGEL
JOAN OSBORNE
GLENN CARDIER AND THE SIDESHOW
DAVY KNOWLES
MELODY ANGEL
IRISH MYTHEN
THE STRUMBELLAS
THE 2017 ARTIST DAILY PLAYING SCHEDULE IS AVAILABLE ONBLUESFEST.COM.AU
All 5, 3 & 1 day Festival and Camping tickets are now on sale throughbluesfest.com.auor by phoning the Bluesfest office on 02 6685 8310