The Truth About Laurence

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25-year old British blues rock guitarist and singer-songwriter, Laurence Jones, will release his new studio album The Truth on Friday 9th March 2018. 

To dovetail the release of the album, Laurence will start his nationwide tour at London’s Borderline on Tuesday 23rd January. All tickets are £15 and available from www.thegigcartel.com and the 24 Hour Box Office 08444 790 898.

Laurence has also launched the pre-order store https://laurencejones.tmstor.es that will feature a selection of bundles including the new album, vinyl, T-shirts, Ltd edition laminates and an exclusive pre-order poster.

Laurence is often labelled as “the future of the blues.” He’s won several major awards and accolades, and has sold over 50,000 albums across four albums.  He’s supported the likes of Status Quo, Gary Clark Jr, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, James Bay, Van Morrison, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Joe Bonamassa Jools Holland, Eric Burdon, and many more.

Hailed as “one to watch” by all corners of the music industry, including press, concert and festival booking agents, blues fans and various musicians. Over the past five years, Laurence has really come into his own, and with his new album The Truth, he has now developing his own creative skin by writing and performing songs that are distinctive to his unique sound and identity.

Says Laurence, “The direction of this album is one I have always wanted to take and that’s crossover blues, just like my heroes John Mayer, Eric Clapton and even Jimi Hendrix. They managed to really bring the sound of the blues to the masses. This is definitely my favourite album that I have made to date. I can’t wait for people to hear The Truth.”

Laurence recorded the new album at the old Sony Studios in Miami. It proved to be an amazing opportunity when Top Stop Music, a Grammy award winning record label, signed Laurence and proposed that he record the album in Florida.  “The studio has so much history,” says Laurence. “It has always been a dream of mine to record in America and I wanted this album to have that USA magic that a lot of my favorite records have.”

The Truth was produced by Gregory Elias the owner of the record label. Laurence and his band had three weeks of pre-production in Curacao; a Dutch island in the Caribbean in January 2017. Gregory gave Laurence the freedom as an artist to go in the direction that he wanted to.

“The new album is about the truth,” says Laurence. “Everybody is searching for the truth and for answers. Some people never find it and some people can see a clear vision. Then others stop searching just as they’re about to discover the answer.  This concept lead me to write a crossover album reflecting on love, life and the reality of what is happening in today’s world.”

Now into his fifth studio album, what sets The Truth apart from all of his previous albums?

Explains Laurence, “The songs are more structured in a pop/rock way, all having a verse, chorus and middle 8. I am inspired by all kinds of music, I have mixed my new influences and old influences together to create this album. The vocals for me is what sets this record apart from previous albums. The vocals and story of a song connect emotionally with people. If you combine this with the rawness of the blues guitar that emotion can come across even stronger. It’s all about the melodies, people can sing along to all of these songs. Sometimes the simplest things come across more powerful.”

The new albums sees ten brand new songs, but which ones is Laurence looking forward to performing on his upcoming tours in 2018?

“I’m looking forward to playing What Would You Do because it has this infectious grove throughout the song. It has a real world music feel to it. I think this captured our Miami experience. With all the crazy things happening in the world right now this song is really relevant. The opening lyrics are – ‘What Would You Do if the war was over, what would you do if we were one?’.”

“The second track is Take Me. It shows a more sensitive side to what I can do. It’s a ballad and having more ballads on this album is a challenge I like to take on. I also love playing the guitar solo on this song which I extend live and gradually build it up.”

The recording and song writing process for the new album was a different experience for Laurence this time around. It was done in four different development stages.

Says Laurence, “I first wrote 20 songs on my own for this album to take to the Caribbean for pre-production, secondly I introduced the songs to the band where we came together as a team and used all of our experiences to structure the songs even more. Thirdly, Gregory changed the structures of the songs even more, got most of them under four minutes and helped mature some important lyrics. The last stage of this process was where the magic happened in the studio. Gregory guided the band to get the best takes and feel for each song. We then over dubbed parts that we had not planned in the pre-production. This is where we added different guitar effects, drum sounds, keyboard parts, bass lines and catchy backing vocals. Grammy Award-winning vocal coach Guianko Gomez guiding me on my vocal takes.”

What was the inspiration for the album?

“My main inspiration was to create catchy songs with guitar solos. I listened to a lot of modern music and keep up to date with what’s in the charts. I just want to hear more guitar in today’s music and you could say my songs are commercial but with the guitar. My all-time inspiration is Eric Clapton. Everyone’s waiting for the next Eric Clapton. To me the guitar lines can be as catchy as the vocals and bring out of the message of the song. I love artists that show versatility and hopefully this comes across on the new album, The Truth.”

 

The Truth – Tracklist

 

  1. What Would You Do
  2. Don’t Let Me Go
  3. Hold Me Close
  4. Keep Me Up At Night
  5. Give Me Your Time
  6. The Truth
  7. Take Me
  8. Gone Away
  9. Can’t Go On Without You
  10. Never Good Enough

 

Laurence Jones Online

Official Website: www.laurencejonesmusic.com     

Facebook: www.facebook.com/laurencejonesmusic

Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurencemusic

YouTube: www.youtube.com/laurencejones

Instagram: www.instagram.com/laurencemusic

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