SUPREME BEINGS OF LEISURE "22" (Leisurephonic)
Add Date: 2/7/2023
Release Date: 2/10/2023
FCC: Clean
Focus Tracks: Body, Desert, It Takes A Girl, Trouble
Formats: Non-Comm AAA, Submodern, NACC Top 200, Electronic, Chill, R&B/Soul
As featured in Grimy Goods, Mixdown and Spill Magazine and already heard on: 91X, KBUU, KCRW, KEBF, KEXP, KFCF, KFMG, KJEE, KOSU, KXCI, KXFM, WCNR, WCSF, WFPK, WMNF, WPYA and many others.
Considering it’s been 14 years since their last release, 11i, fans want to know: have Supreme Beings of Leisurebeen too leisurely?
Given the strength of their new album, 22, the answer is a resounding no.
The band—consisting of original members Geri Soriano, Ramin Sakurai, and Rick Torres—had to live life. A whole lot of it. There were marriages, kids, a divorce, the death of parents, a flooded recording studio, the pandemic, even a near-death experience.
With their fourth studio album, those experiences have been transformed into music.
And so 22 years after their critically-acclaimed, self-titled debut (and two decades since this trio has played together), Supreme Beings of Leisure is back, with an impressive array of guests to boot.
“Our intention was to put out an album years ago”, says multi-instrumentalist/producer Sakurai, “but you can’t force a great album to happen. They come on their own in due time and usually with good reason. As Geri likes to say: sometimes you have to live the song before you can write it.”
SBL has lived many songs over these past two decades, which comes through in all 11 songs. Start with the band’s first single, “Full Circle,” a fitting title for a group of accomplished musicians finally together again.
“‘Full Circle’ is just a fun song,” says singer/songwriter Soriano, who wrote all the lyrics on 22. “The hook just came to me. We wanted to start off with something cheeky. The song is the flip side to ‘Golddigger’ from our debut.”
Fun, certainly, yet meaningful: Soriano was pregnant while recording their first album. Now her college graduate daughter takes the band’s photos.
The upbeat track perfectly captures SBL’s signature retro-future West Coast Chill vibe, a sound they helped create in the heyday of trip-hop and mid-tempo electronica at the turn of the century. Fusing funk and Bossa Nova, “Full Circle” is a throwback track that softens the heaviness of the cultural moment.
Not that every track is airy. 22 opens with an anthem, “It Takes a Girl,” which pays homage to climate change activist Greta Thunberg. The throbbing bassline and bouncing percussion backing up “Contender” helps to frame a critical look at Donald Trump. And the Pharcyde vibe on “Run” opens into an existential poem on the nature of love.
“We’ve had so many years to get better at our instruments and craft,” says guitarist/programmer Torres. “I’m blown away by the level of musicianship that everybody brought to the table. It’s a substantial listening experience given all of the amazing contributions.”
Stay in the game long enough and you collect enough friends to make a fantastic team effort—which is exactly what22 is. Beyond the core trio, the album features keyboardist Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters), guitarist Marty Friedman(Megadeth), violinist Lili Haydn (Paige/Plant, Funkadelic), drummer Satnam Ramgotra (Hans Zimmer), percussionist Duke Mushroom (Masters at Work, Janet Jackson, Gloria Estefan), bassist Adam Dorn (Mocean Worker), pianist Scott Tibbs (Beyonce), and vocalists Durga McBroom (Pink Floyd, David Gilmore), Frank Navin (The Aluminum Group), and Monica Reed (Sting, James Brown, Deep Purple).
“We went through some very rough patches these last few years and as musicians,” says Sakurai. “There’s always the need to express ourselves and share our musical identity with people who can relate to our songs and stories. I’ve been writing musical ideas since the last album, knowing that we’d eventually record another when the stars aligned. ”
The stars certainly come out on the album’s most intimate track, “I’ve Waited,” a song about love and longing. Soriano has a way of capturing meaningful sentiments in a few words. Whereas that song is lovely and seductive, “Body” is at the other end of the spectrum: vintage brass-driven SBL with layers to peel back and contemplate.
“I became a clinical hypnotherapist that specializes in past-life regressions between albums,” says Soriano. “Death and the afterlife have always been fascinating to me. And during this time, Ramin had a near-death experience while battling an illness. ‘Body’ came out of that eerie combination of events.”
You can’t avoid pain and suffering, but you can make beautiful art out of it.
With so much behind them, SBL is now looking toward the future. Of course, the pandemic has shaped us all in different ways. In fact, Soriano admits that she’s as internal in person—those reflective lyrics come from somewhere—as she is outgoing on record. Lockdowns actually helped her refine her poetic sensibilities.
“‘My Ibiza’ was that pandemic song. What I realized during the pandemic is that I am a total introvert and I really love being alone. Not all the time, but I really enjoy my alone time. The song is the story about introversion and being happy in your bubble.”
Longtime SBL fans will be thrilled to be back inside of the sonic bubble known as 22. There’s so much richness and depth, all packaged in the incredible storytelling and songwriting you’ve come to expect.
And then some.
“When the decision was made to start writing and production, we brought Rick’s vintage SBL guitar sounds and energy back,” concludes Sakurai. “The newer ideas came fast. The only issue was having too much good material to choose from. We eventually agreed on the cream of the crop. The result is an all-killer, no-filler album.”