The Beat Surrender

A few weeks ago I got a single called Amazing sent to me for review, it was by a group called Reel People who i’d never heard of at the time. I loved the nu-jazz/soul feel of the single and am looking forward to reveiwing the group’s second album Seven Ways To Wonder, which is out on 25th February through Papa Recordings.

Just ahead of the release of the album I got the chance to put some questions to Oli from the group.

For those of us who are joining you on the second album due out next week, tell us a little bit about how you got together and how the first album came together?

I created Reel People in 2001 and after a year or so of finding my feet, I hooked up with Mike Patto and we immediately started work on our first album ‘Second Guess’. It was about 9 months in the making and the rest as they say is history.

From the reviews I’ve read Second Guess was received really well and must have given you a lot of confidence on the back of it?

Definitely, It was a massive boost. For me you spend months tucked away in the studio nodding your head and getting very excited but at the back of your mind your always thinking are we the only one’s that are gonna like this. When the record came out and got the feedback it did, we felt really happy.

Second albums are notoriously difficult after a good debut, how do you feel you’ve overcome falling into that particular musical cliché?

We had some time between the first and second album so I suppose we really thought the whole process through. Especially with soul music it is easy to get stuck in a time warp and we were very focused about the sound of this album. It is a difficult record to get right but I think we gave ourselves a really great opportunity with all the people that collaborated on the project.

Both albums have featured a variety of vocalists and you’re group seems to be ever evolving. Does that help to keep things fresh?

Reel People has always been about collaborating and have a different edge to each track. There are so many wonderful vocalists out there that we love, so it’s a real pleasure to have so many of them involved on this record.

You seem to have made it big in Japan, is it strange when things are slightly out of sync in one country for you?

I suppose it is a little. Japan seemed to be an instant territory for us. As soon as the promo’s went out on the first album we had a lot of things bubbling over there. Obviously over the years we have tried to focus on making things happen in a few more places and with the new album dropping, this will hopefully help.

On the back of that though you got to play with Herbie Hancock which must have been a dream come true?

It was pretty surreal. We were invited to play at his festival in Japan and at the end of each day, Herbie invited some of the musicians from the different bands to have like a super jam. It was us and Toto, which was pretty crazy. Standing next to the man on stage was an experience we will never forget!!

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