Thunderbird Divine to release album “Little Wars” via Black Doomba Records on 30 August 2024
Rooted in the realms of classic rock songwriting, THUNDERBIRD DIVINE produce a stoner rock and psychedelia heavy sound while allowing other genres to infuse their work. No instrument or style is off limits. Little Wars is the band's forthcoming album that continues their trajectory into experimental and textural music. Little Wars will be released on August 30th, 2024.
The band comments on the Little Wars:
“The process of creating music has to be organic, and it has to come from a sincere place devoid of fear,” says Erik Caplan, the band’s guitarist/vocalist. “At least, that’s what works best for this band. So I find it essential to trust my co-creators and have them trust me. We have to be willing to wander into curious musical rabbit holes together just to see what we might find. I think we did a lot of that kind of stuff with this album, but the foundation of the entire effort is songwriting. That has to be solid. If you don’t have good songs at the core of your album, adding funky textures is an exercise in pointlessness. And I think we’ve covered that base as well. These feel like good songs to us.”
“Our recording process was very involved,” Caplan says. “We demoed every song in our rehearsal space, sketching out all of our ideas from the ground up. We took those basic demo tracks and embroidered them back at Josh’s (bassist Josh Solomon) studio. We threw a lot of sounds at those demos, and we started getting a strong idea of what worked best to our ears. Nothing was off limits. For example, if I said, ‘I think I can hear a sitar in there,’ the response was almost always ‘OK, let’s hear the part you have in mind.’ It’s inspiring to work that way.”
About THUNDERBIRD DIVINE:
THUNDERBIRD DIVINE comprises four Philadelphia musicians who came together in March of 2017 to collaborate and create riff-heavy psychedelic/stoner/doom in the spirit of artists like MONSTER MAGNET, HAWKWIND, FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND, THE MC5, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD and many others. Named after the street moniker of a homeless Vietnam veteran from vocalist/guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Erik Caplan’s childhood neighborhood, the band formed after the dissolution of two long-term Philly stalwart acts, WIZARD EYE (Caplan) and SKELETON HANDS (drummer Mike Stuart). Keys man Jack Falkenbach appeared out of the ether to join up in 2019, and highly experienced engineer and bassist Joshua Solomon came along just as THUNDERBIRD DIVINE parted ways with its original bassist, Adam Scott (also of SKELETON HANDS) in 2022.
Magnasonic, THUNDERBIRD DIVINE’s first release, appeared on Salt of the Earth Records (CD) and Interstellar Smoke Records (vinyl) in 2019, and its follow-up, The Hand of Man, was also released on CD by Salt of the Earth Records in 2020. The band also released a single recording of THE YARDBIRDS' "Happenings 10 Year’s Time Ago" in the same year. Since 2022, The outfit have released recordings of "Crazy Horses" by THE OSMONDS and "I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe", by BARRY WHITE, both given the band’s signature quirky imprint.
The band has performed for audiences from Maine to Maryland and has been featured at festivals such as The Maryland Doom Fest, The New England Stoner Doom Fest and The Shadow Woods Metal Fest alongside national and regional acts LIKE FREEDOM HAWK, YATRA, LO PAN, HIPPIE DEATH CULT, SOLACE and APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE, to name a few.
THUNDERBIRD DIVINE is:
Erik Caplan: Vocals, Guitar, Theremin, Sitar, Banjo, Harmonica, Synth, Drones, Weird Stuff
Micheal Stuart: Vocals, Drums, Percussion
Joshua Adam Solomon: Vocals, Bass, Guitars, Synth, Percussion
Jack Falkenbach: Vocals, Keys, Violin, Melodica
Album Credits:
Recorded at East Airy Recordings with the exception of drums which were recorded at Philadelphia’s Retro City Studios.
Track Listing:
1. Pony Express
2. Times Gone Bad
3. Last Laugh
4. Black Rhino Mantra
5. These Eyes
6. Tides
7. Highway Dawn
8. Old Black Crow
9. Carousel
