CHILD PLAY AGAIN

Hot on the heels of their outstanding album ‘Can’t Go Home’, Unruly Child played an emotional set at the Frontiers Rock Festival 2017 in Milan (which was filmed/recorded and released in early 2018).

While at the festival, a meeting with the label stoked the fires for the band to make more new music together and thus extend the musical legacy of one of the very last melodic rock giants still operating. Marcie Michelle Free (vocalist – King Kobra, Signal), Bruce Gowdy (guitarist – Stone Fury, World Trade)

and Guy Allison (keyboards – Lodgic, World Trade, Doobie Brothers) reconvened in 2018 and started working on a brand new album that would match the outstanding quality of its predecessors.

“For this album, there was a conscious decision to merge the best of what Unruly Child does, while still evolving,” says Guy Allison. “You know, melodic rock, but with that unique Unruly Child approach. It’s hard for us to stand still and repeat ourselves, but we also can’t help but sound like ‘us’, irrespective of any artistic lateral movement. While I’m sometimes surprised what catches the ears of our fans, I think that the album has something for everyone.”

He continues: “except for the few songs we pulled out of our [2014 album] ‘Down The Rabbit Hole’ sessions and subsequently reworked, this album was written in about two weeks. After we get a structure roughly recorded, I’ll listen to the track until the melody magically shows up, seemingly out of thin air. Sometimes I’ll have a partial lyric, sometimes just a melody that I sing nonsense syllables to.

I’m really lucky these days to have another wordsmith to work with. In the past, I’ve been the lyricist on most of the songs I’ve been a writer on, but now I have Betsy Summers to do some of the heavy lifting with me in that department. On some songs I’ll say, ‘I’ve got this melody, what do ya got?’. On other songs I’ll say, ‘I’ve got the first verse, but I need a second verse, here’s a pencil’. She always delivers.

The rest of the time is spent giving the recordings the attention that they need to become Unruly Child tracks. Finishing the process is a lot like having a block of marble and chipping away at it until the statue underneath is revealed. For us, it’s always been the art of discovering what the song wants to be.

Sometimes it’s immediate and sometimes it takes a little longer, but we always get what we’re after. It’s not much different than it was in 1991. We just have more experience now, and better gear!”

Ever since the release of their critically acclaimed ‘Unruly Child’ debut album in 1992, all the band members have pursued accomplished careers in the music industry. Marcie Michelle Free, one of rock music’s finest singers and the most renowned of transgender vocalists, first released a solo record as Mark Free entitled ‘Long Way From Love’ in 1993 and then, as Marcie Free, ‘Tormented’ in 1996. Guitarist Bruce Gowdy and keyboard player Guy Allison have produced more Unruly Child records and participated in another World Trade album with drummer Jay Schellen (Yes), while also pursuing

other projects. Their reputation as writers, performers and arrangers is second to none having worked with the likes of Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), Bobby Kimball (Toto), Doobie Brothers, Boz Scaggs, Air Supply, The Moody Blues and more.

In its constant state of evolution, Unruly Child have generated an exciting new album reflective of their musical roots in contemporary and classic rock. With the return to their original line-up, they have also discovered that while time may pass, some things never change.

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