Bahamas w/Old Man Luedecke
Friday, January 12, 8pm
Rebecca Cohn Auditorium,
6101 University Avenue
$41.50
When Bahamas plays the Rebecca Cohn on Friday night, it'll be exactly one week before the release of his fourth album, Earthtones. The artist is excited to play the new songs—it's going on four years since his last record, Bahamas Is Afie, and its extensive, exhaustive touring cycle.
"I had different ideas for music," says Afie Jurvanen, AKA Bahamas. "But basically I wasn't sure what kind of album to make—I wanted to make something that sounded modern and contemporary and wasn't like nostalgic or throwback in any way."
After a suggestion from his manager Robbie Lackritz, Bahamas ended up recording with session musicians from R&B legend D'Angelo's rhythm section.
"I just feel like that's the sound—it's elemental. At the risk of sounding corny, it's just, to me those are the earthtones," says Jurvanen. "They just hit you right in the soul and they're from some deep, deep, elemental place."
Jurvanen went into the sessions with an open mind, pieces of songs and no expectations during the three-day recording session in Los Angeles last fall.
"I came away from it thinking 'holy smokes,' I don't even know what genre of music this is," he says. "You can't say it sounds like this or that, it sounds like its own thing, which for me was always the goal, to make something that sounds unique."
Jurvanen did more recording with his touring band and the result is Earthtones, an album that's playful and honest as he sings about life on the road, relationships and depression.
"Music has always served a lot of functions for me. It's my hobby, it's my profession and it's like therapy and it's like all the stuff," he says. "I get to use music to work out a lot of my own stuff."