Superheavy Look to the Past for Common Musical Ground

When Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone, Damian Marley and A.R. Rahman teamed up to record the upcoming SuperHeavy record together, they ended up looking back in music history to find a common ground that fused together their variety of musical styles and influences.

Stewart tells Billboard he started this proceess by turning Stone on to the ’30s and ’40s swing legends the Andrew Sisters, whom she’d never heard before. In fact, much of the concept of SuperHeavy derives from the 1930’s hitmaker era. This band, whose name hails from boxing champion Muhammad Ali, is all about discovery.

Rolling Stones legend Jagger was enlisted by Stewart for the project after the two of them worked together on the ‘Alfie’ soundtrack in 2004. Experimentation was key, and together with Stone, Damian Marley (youngest son of Bob) and A.R. Rahman (‘Slumdog Millionaire’ soundtrack) the quintet of musicians wrote 22 songs in six days, then laid down most of the tracks in Los Angeles in a matter of three weeks.

Recording in multiple studios around the world (Cyprus, Miami, India), the songs come from a melting pot of sounds, including Indian, Reggae, Rock, Pop, Blues, Soul. Stewart explains, “I love musicians from all over the world but never liked the term ‘world music’ that sounds like people knitting yogurt sweaters.”

Superheavy’s self titled debut album will be released on Sept. 20 and features the reggae-driven single titled ‘Miracle Worker,’ for which they just released a pretty cool music video.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/superheavy-look-to-the-past-for-common-musical-ground/