All right.

That's a tune called Do the Sausage Roll.

It's a dance that we haven't invented yet.

And, we got a lot of silly names because we're a British band.

And a lot of British references.

So if you haven't had a sausage roll, next time you're in Britain, make sure you do One, Two... Wait, wait We're going to get our good friend.

Sorry about that.

We're going to ge a good friend, Parris Fleming, to join us.

We met him years ago, when he was playing with a ban called The Herd out of Chicago.

And we used to do.

They used to open for, open for us a lot when we're on the road.

So we ran into him last night, and here he is.

Yeah.

That's Joe Tatton on the piano that last.

Well, it's it's kind of two tunes stuck together.

The first one is called Smoothie, The second one is called 88, referring to the piano.

So all these songs are from, an album that we just put out earlier this year and, it' actually it's called Old School.

Reason bein it was recorded at Joe's studio, which is an old schoolhouse, in the Derbyshire Dales.

Very fancy.

Where we are?

Down On the Farm?

And the next one is called Down On the Farm for that same reason.

That was.

Surrounded by cows, which one is Down On the Farm?

Is it's the, the vocal one.

What you say.

What you do.

What you say.

What you do.

What you say.

What you do.

[All] What you say.

What you do.

[All] What you say.

What you do.

[All] What you say.

What you do.

[All] What you say.

What you do.

What you say.

What you do.

What you say.

What you do.

All I could see is your silhouetted face.

So that's a remix at one.

You I think?

Thats a tune called Til the Cows Come Home.

Because we could play tha groove till the cows come home.

That's the kind of thing that we love to do.

In the club.

In Da Club.

Here's another silly British reference.

This next tune is actually a homage to Booker T, and we called it Breakfast T. The New Mastersounds are one of the cornerstone of the modern retro soul scene.

Born out of the U.K.

they've been keeping the soul funk idiom alive and well in the past 25 years.

It's my pleasure to introduce the New Mastersounds to KUVO and Eddie Roberts, the guitarist and Simon Allen, the drummer.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Oh my gosh.

And my pleasure.

You guys have been playing since the 90s, I was reading, It all started with a live, a live band to compliment the DJ sets at, a club called The Cooker.

You have Simon Allen here and Eddie Roberts joined by bassist Pete Shand and eventually Joe Tatton, leading to The New Mastersounds as we know it today.

So you all are kind of spread out though.

You live here in Denver.

You're back in Leeds.

How do you get playing all the time together?

Yeah, and Pete lives in Spain.

Oh, okay.

So you're real spread out.

Yeah, we are spread out.

But, you know, there's after 25 years and and actually the The New Mastersounds has been together 25 years.

But, you know, I played with Pete since like 93.

And then Simon and I had a band.

[Simon] In ‘97 it might be.

Yeah, something like that.

So you know when you've been playing together so long, it's just, you know it's like seeing an old friend.

You just pick up where you where you left off, like you had lunch yesterday.

And then it's just that there you go.

And so, you know, it doesn't really matter how far between of these, these tours that we do and you know, definitely proved that with the whole last five years.

We didn't play together for two years.

And then we went to Iceland and recorded an album, and it was just like, boom, straight there, straight in the pocket.

And so it's just I think it's a lot to do with, just the friendship and how long we've known each other.

And I think the creativity gets stored up when we're absent from each other.

Yeah.

And then released when we meet.

Beautiful thing.

And you have really strong roots in old soul, funk and groove.

You joined bands like the, you know, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & the Expressions, Durand Jones & The Indications bringing this retro vibe is modern sou revival, and your music's rooted in that golden era of soul music.

Can you talk about your musical roots?

I know you mentioned jazz, jazz, jazz all the time.

And, it's heavy in your rotation, and it inspired the addition of the Hammond in your band.

Can you talk about some of your musical roots?

[Eddie] Yeah, I mean, you know, we came out of this funk scene you know, like, he's, like you said, this kind of retro scene that was happening.

It was very DJ-led back in the UK in the 90s, and that influenced us massively.

And they would do mixtapes for us and, you know, so it wasn't any one band or anything like that.

It was just this kind of, this whole scene.

Like a curated sound, wasn't it?

Yeah.

So we because it was mixtapes, we, we wouldn't know what the band was or who the musicians were that we were listening to.

So we were just absorbing a vibe and that was influencing us.

Yeah.

And then and we were it was like aroun the same time as Sharon Jones.

They used to come over to Leeds and play at the club that we played at, and The Greyboy Allstars.

and people like that theyd all tour through the UK.

So we were all friends an kind of influencing each other.

And I remember the actually the original drummer of it was Sharon.

It was before the Dap-Kings.

It was The Soul Providers it was Sharon Jones and The Soul Providers, and the original drummer was a tape freak.

And like, he was kind of lik really into recording to tape.

And he kind of taught how to get that vintage sound one time when he was passing through.

So we were all kind of like influences influencing each other and, and kind of sharing this whole love for this, for this music.

Can you talk a little bit about this movement?

I mean, I know you're tapping into those old roots, but you're bringing that modern sound to it.

Can you talk about the scene and maybe some of the stories that you've had along the way playing this kind of music?

I mean, you know, we kind of.

So we were based in the U.K.

doing all this.

But then when we came to America, we got adopted by this jam scene, and that kind of confused us for a moment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we've never heard of the jam scene, and it didn't seem to care what genre the music is.

But we'd come from a very genre specific scene, which was funk, soul, jazz, and it kept itself to itself.

And then here we found ourselves rubbing shoulders with bluegrass bands with, like, psychedelic electronic bands, heavy rock, sometimes prog rock and, and, just it seemed like there were fans of music who were far more open minded than anyon that we left behind back there.

And a big part of it, we were encouraged to jam then that was saying before that we were doing like three Minute Funk 45.

You know.

Yeah.

Tracks.

And I remembe we played High Sierra Festival.

That was 2005.

Was that the first festival we played here in California Yeah.

And, we came offstage and everyone was like, yeah, you're great, but you need to jam more.

And we were like, really?

We're like, what do you mean?

And but because we came from a we had come from a jazz background, some of us it was like, oh, you just mean, like stretching out solos.

Okay.

Got it.

And as soon as we started doing that, then it was like we really go embraced by the American scene.

But but initially, we would have felt that that was self-indulgent and we would have bee self-conscious about doing it.

You have such an amazing sound that's evolved a lot over the years, and you've don a lot of collaborations as well.

That I just I love it so much.

And you've got a great album out now, which we got to hear a lot of tracks from today.

Your music has brought you to different places this time, Old School, and I saw it was recorded in one rainy week of July.

Is that normally how it comes quick?

It wasn't a whole week.

It wasnt a whole week.

It was three and a half days.

And it is normal to be rainy in July in the UK, so.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that is standard.

We were in Joe's living room essentially, where he'd set up recording.

I mean, it's a studio, but he happens to sleep in that same room at night time.

And, it's difficult because Eddie lives over here, and, three of us liv the other side of the Atlantic.

So we have to kind of plan.

Oh.

When's Eddie going to be over here for another reason?

Or if we're doing some shows, then when's the next time we're going to have 3 or 4 days clear.

Or vice versa.

One of the guys going to be in the US.

We've just been in the studio for the last three days actually.

[Abi] Oh, yeah?

Here in Denver.

And so it's kind of.

Yeah, we've we find these little windows where we can get together for three days, and we have the pressure to just.

All right, we got to make an album in three days because we've only got three days.

We don't have this.

The the, the pleasure of spending weeks and months, although.

I did the, the luxury was The Deplar Effect which we did in Iceland in 2021.

And I think that was ten days, wasn't it?

And then that felt like an we had a huge team of engineers and it just people making it happen.

But in the one that you were just talking about, Old School, which we recorded at Joe's house, it was just the four of us.

And Joe kept walking ove to his computer to press record and then go back to his Hammond.

And that was it.

And it's just four of us all in the same room all at once.

And yeah, we wanted to go back to basics with it as well.

Like you said, we've done a lot of collaborations with vocalists, with horn sections and and, we just especially after having the hiatus that we'd had, [Abi] Right.

that we just wanted to just be the four of u and just make old school sounds.

Man.

Yeah, it's definitely a treat.

Y'all are so tight after 25 years of playing together.

But also you welcome.

Today we had, Parrisian in with the trumpets.

Do you, do you like it both ways?

Like having a lead singer or something versus having instrumentals that just kind of depend on.

Do you hear that something should have the vocals.

But it just makes things a little, you know, interesting for us, especially if we're touring for five weeks, you know.

Yeah.

Which we, which we just.

Which we just did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, if we did five weeks on just the four of us, we, you know, we start getting a little bored of ourselves, and, and it's nice to just add pepper in some, you know, guests.

And it just keeps things fresh and just keeps it a little more interesting for us.

Wonderful.

So I want to talk a little bit about the Color Red.

It's, this it's keeping this art form alive.

Are you guys playing the music?

But you're also paying it forward with this.

With this platform invites you know, artists to collaborate and produce original music.

And not only that, it becomes this hub for music discovery, connecting fans and artists.

Can you share a little bi on the story of the Color Red?

of Color Red, and also the community reflections on the community that's been built around it?

Yeah, well, I moved to Denver in what was that, 2015 now?

And, you know, Denver had always been a really important live, place for us, like Cervantes.

We would always play there, come through, play Friday, Saturday nights, and that's pretty much home base and family for us now.

So I ended up moving here from New Orleans and, I just saw this wealth of, of music happening with that.

The rest of the US or the rest of the world didn't really know was happening.

And it didn't seem to be much of an outlet for it as well.

So that was, that was, th instigator of starting a label was to try and expose what what an amazing music scene and, and lots of collaborations and things like that that naturally happen in Denver like on a, on a nightly basis.

So that, that was that was why I decided to start it.

And Color Red means Colorado.

It's like color Rojo, you know, from the from the Spanish.

So I thought that was an appropriate name for it.

And then we just started, you know, putting out, digital, singles.

And then we moved more into vinyl.

And now we're kind of focusing mainly on the vinyl club.

So we do like, you know kind of like a book club with, like a monthly subscription.

So we put, an original vinyl record out every month.

You know, there' a lot of vinyl clubs out there that are doing, you know, reissues of, you know, hip hop, things like that.

I think we the only vinyl club that are making records each month and putting them out.

So, that's kind of what we're focusing on now.

And, and then, you know, that in itself then exposes these collaborations and the, you know, the grassroots scene of Colorado.

So people can be a part of i from anywhere and hear the music that's coming out.

[Eddie] Absolutely.

Wow.

And how many like, can you talk about the flow o musicians that have come through and maybe the excitement of, you know, being able to collaborate all together with you?

I mean, you know, it's like we just opened the doors really to to the whole to the whole scene.

And, and, and because of that, you just end up having these natural collaborations that happen that you didn't even expect to happen.

People just show up and like, oh, yeah, this is a great idea to have, you know, x drummer and y keyboard player.

And it's just like, yeah, let's, let's go press record quick.

You know.

Thank you so much for coming to KUVO and talking a little bit about your amazing legacy, which over the weekend you're celebrating your 25th anniversary celebration.

Indeed we are.

Can you kind of reflect a little bit on, you know, how long you guys been playing togethe and how your sound has morphed?

Well.

It's crazy to us that we've been together for 25 years.

And when we came back for the tour that we just did in March and April, we kind of noticed that the audience was al kind of they were people our age who we've seen in our audience for the last 15 to 20 years.

And they, like feeling like this is a cozy nostalgia, reminding them of them being young.

And I'm like, well, we're we're an up and coming band.

It's like, oh no, we've been going for 25 years.

It's confusing.

But, yeah.

And you do also see kids now, we know the, you know, the black cross on the hands, you know, saying that they're underage and they're the kids of our fans.

Yeah.

They're the kids that they say I've been listening to since I was five.

And they were like, oh, okay.

The story checks out because, you know, now you're 19 and yes, these.

Kids have been brainwashed.

But yeah, yeah, but they were dancing around the living rooms when they were five years old to their parents playing our music.

So it's kind of it' really fun to see that change.

Yeah.

I saw on Instagram, somebody putting their, I don't know, five yea olds in front of the the phone.

What's your favorite band?

The New Mastersounds.

[Abi] Thats so cute.

But I think what we've tried to do, throughout the whole time is make a recor at least once every 18 months.

And, a lot of bands spend a long tim on their records and don't make that many of them could argue they might be better, but, but what we like to do is keep refreshing our set, and just making sure that we've got more new stuff to play to get our teeth into.

And so that's kind of the purpose of making a record, is to generate new tunes that we can play live.

Yeah, yeah.

But it has left this legac of this big recording catalog.

Yeah.

And actually on the, on this, you know, this year, that last tour we did and you know, this weekend included, we've been delving back into the back catalog.

Obviously, we've got the new album and well, we'll play a lot of the tunes from the new album, but then we've been finding tunes that we probably haven't played for 15 years or like, oh, let's play that again.

And yeah, because a lot of tunes get retired just by accident.

You kind of forgot about the new.

Ones come in.

Right.

And it's like a Toy Story, yo know, dusting off the vintage.

Oh, look.

Oh, I remember this on that used to make me so happy.

And we have we just had that experience.

I think we managed to get a catalog of about 60 or 70 tunes that we could pick from on any night, and that meant that when we play in Denver, at Cervantes, we did two nights, two sets each night, and we played a total of 3.5 hours each night.

But but we didn't have to repeat too many tunes because we ha such a big pool to choose from.

Wow.

Did you just call them out on the stage?

Or do you have a list?

No, I have we have the system now where I choose which tunes we're going to do, and then I send them to Eddie and he puts them in a set order and that makes his job easier.

And I then don't have to play tunes that I don't want to play, because I've chosen them.

Wow.

Well, thank you so much both of you, for talking with us and coming here and playing your new album, Old School out everywhere.

Appreciate you guys coming through and and sharing your wonderful music with our community.

[Eddie] Thanks for having us and big, big fans of KUVO, So thanks for what you do.

[Abi] Thank you.