Rik Emmett & RESolution9
‘RES 9’
Provogue/Mascot Label Group
Out: 11 November 2016
Teamwork. Collaboration.
Connectivity. Solidarity. These are all words that readily describe the thrust
of Rik Emmett & RESolution9, who are poised to release their electrifying
new album RES 9 worldwide on November 11th in various formats
— including CD, limited-edition red vinyl, and digital download — on Provogue Records,
an imprint of Mascot Label Group. “This album represents a journey through my
life,” Emmett observes, “and the idea behind a lot of these songs is me trying
to figure out who I am, and why I’m doing what I’m doing. There’s a common
thread of positivity here that ties into the records I was making 30 years ago.
What did I learn from making them? You’ll hear all of that echoed in the
grooves of this album.”
Indeed, the scope of the 11
deeply heartfelt songs on RES 9 covers a lot of exciting aural ground,
from the out-of-the-gate gallop of “Human Race” (which also features a driving
12-string contribution from Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson) to the testifying
tones of “My Cathedral” to the whispering blues of “The Ghost of Shadow Town,”
not to mention the cutting-heads guitar duels on “End of the Line” and the
touching album-closing bonus track “Grand Parade,” which reunites Emmett with
his onetime Triumph bandmates, bassist Mike Levine and drummer Gil Moore.
(“Grand Parade” also recalls the distinctive intimate feel of Triumph’s
“Suitcase Blues,” which Emmett continues to perform solo to this day.)
The RESolution9 band itself is
comprised of Rik’s touring quartet, with Dave Dunlop on guitar, Steve Skingley
on bass and keyboards, and Paul DeLong on drums. Dunlop and Skingley also
co-produced RES 9 with Emmett. In case you’re wondering where the band
name came from, Emmett reveals he always viewed the recording team as a band
and not as solo-artist support from the very outset. “We always wanted it to be
packaged like a band, so we needed a band name,” Emmett recounts. I didn’t want
it to be just Rik Emmett. We liked the idea of using the initials RE for Rik
Emmett, so what about a word that starts that way, like REvolution? RESolution
was even better, because it’s almost like the Rik Emmett Solution, and
the solution to all of my problems is the band! Great! But I thought using
RESolution on its own was very ’60s or ’70s, so I said, ‘How about we stick the
number 9 at the end?’”
What’s the significance of
going with 9, you ask? “Dave Dunlop has a thing about the number 9,” Emmett
says. “He plays hockey twice a week, and the sweater he wears has the number 9
on it. His studio is Room 9, and he’s got a tattoo on his right arm that’s the
Chinese symbol for the number 9. It’s totally his thing.” With that final
numerical addendum, the mighty RESolution9 collective was officially born.
And while Emmett is forever
grateful for all of the outside contributions to RES 9, he very much
feels that when listeners get to experience the back-to-back soul-kisses of “My
Cathedral” and “The Ghost of Shadow Town,” they’ll connect even deeper with his
current musical mindset. “That’s the heart and soul of what the album really is
for me,” Emmett admits, “because that is me. That’s 2016 Rik Emmett.
That’s where I’m at today.”
That said, Emmett is also a
strong believer in teamwork, and to him, the overall vibe of RES 9 is
clearly reflected in the brotherhood and camaraderie shared amongst all the
artists who made this special music together. “You can’t accomplish this kind
of project 100 percent by yourself,” Emmett believes. “It takes a lot of things
working together to make something like this happen. I come back to the old
saying that goes, ‘Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan.’ I knew
that I had to spread it all around. It’s important I keep the guys in my band
pretty happy.”
For their part, Emmett’s fellow
RES 9’ers couldn’t be happier with the end RESults. “I’ve been working
with Rik for over 20 years and we’ve done several records together as a duo, so
I knew going in that it would be a good experience,” says Dunlop, who’s also
performed with Emmett under the quite fitting name of Strung-Out Troubadours.
“Rik is always open to suggestions and is gracious in the space he gives me to
play and come up with ideas. He trusts my judgement, so I had endless freedom
when it came to creating my parts on the album.”
Concurs Skingley, who also
served as the album’s co-principal engineer, “Brotherhood is a good way to
describe it. It’s a very unique record in the sense that all of the writing,
production, and engineering was kept in-house. It reminds me of a throwback to
the ’70s, where bands like 10cc did everything themselves. Here, everything
flowed from Rik. Dave and I spent a week of pre-production choosing the songs
from his demos and playing them acoustically, making sure everything was solid.
We then brought in Paul on drums, and started playing them live in a room
together. I recorded each step along the way. It was pretty interesting to
listen to the development of each song throughout that process.”
Once DeLong got behind the
kit, the unique brand of RES 9 magic was unleashed full-force. “Rik is a
great leader in that he allows creativity to take place, always,” DeLong says.
“He welcomes input from everybody in the band. This hasn’t always been my
experience, so it’s a welcome change — and it made for a lot of fun while we
were both rehearsing and recording the material for the album. And the
recording was painless! Rik was always very positive about what we were
accomplishing, and I think that reflects in the overall vibe of the tunes.”
Nowhere is that vibe more
evident than in the lead track “Human Race,” which masterfully sets the
positivity table for what’s to come. “I’ve been around the block a few times,
and one of the things I like about the lyrics in ‘Human Race’ is when we get to
the last verse where it says, ‘I am still this guy. I still live this.’
That’s very true,” Emmett acknowledges. “There’s also a line in there about
raising a joyful noise — and I still want to do that too.”
As noted earlier, Rush
guitarist Alex Lifeson added some period-perfect 12-string guitar alongside
Emmett and Dunlop to buttress the impact of “Human Race,” and he says he found
it quite an honor to play with and for his lifelong friend. “When Rik asked me
to play on his new album, I didn’t hesitate for a second,” Lifeson reports.
“He’s the consummate musician, a wonderful guitarist, and a terrific person,
and it’s always my pleasure to work with him any chance I can get. There is a
rock purity in his songwriting and performance, and it’s just so much fun to
get together and throw ideas around. He’s always so up and open for anything —
even a notoriously uncooperative Rickenbacker 12-string!” Dunlop points out the
way RESolution9 meshed with Lifeson “stands as a great example of the
collective efforts of the brotherhood.”
Another one of RES 9’s
honored guests, Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie, lent his own considerable
talents to a pair of tracks, “I Sing” and “End of the Line” (the latter of
which also features Lifeson taking the third guitar solo), and he jumped at the
chance to record with his fellow Canadian. “I’ve been extremely blessed and
fortunate to meet so many great musicians and beautiful people throughout my
career, and to have the opportunity to collaborate and record with some of them
is really icing on the cake,” LaBrie notes. “What a thrill it was to record
with Rik, who is such an incredible musician and overall down-to-earth cool
guy.” About the slow-build manifesto of “I Sing,” Skingley enthuses, “James
sang his ass off on that song!” Adds Dunlop, “I enjoyed tracking the guitars on
‘I Sing’ the most because I got to go crazy with several layers of guitars —
and I also got to channel [Pink Floyd’s] David Gilmour on the outro.”
A fair amount of the album was
recorded and mixed at Mississauga, Ontario’s MetalWorks Studios, a location
where Emmett, Levine, and Moore (who owns the studio) recorded many of
Triumph’s greatest works — and it’s also where the trio convened to tackle
“Grand Parade.” Clarifies Emmett, “The Triumph song is a bonus track. That’s
the best way to position it. It’s like ‘Suitcase Blues’ [the last track on
Triumph’s 1979 million-seller, Just a Game] — or ‘Her Majesty’ at the
end of Abbey Road!”
Having Triumph involved on RES
9 to some degree was always on the table. “I play ‘Suitcase Blues’ as the last
song of the night in the encore for my acoustic shows. I dedicate it to Mike
and Gil and the fact that they gave me the latitude to do the crazy things that
I do,” Emmett laughs. “As I was developing the lyrics for ‘Grand Parade,’ I
started thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could get Mike and Gil to play on
it? Wouldn’t that just bring everything full circle?’ One thing led to another,
and there we were, recording in MetalWorks. Things just lined up perfectly.”
Levine had a great time in the
studio with his former bandmates. “We rocked it up a bit, and Gil made the
drums heavier than they were on the demo,” the bassist notes. “Once I paid
deeper attention to the lyrics, I really got into the ‘let’s wrap up this late night’
kind of feel to it. I think it turned out really fantastic. I told Rik I felt
it was a really cool tune, one that was very personal for all of us. I’m
really, really proud of it, and it was great to work with both Rik and Gil on
it. It was really neat.”
Moore wholly enjoyed the
“Grand Parade” experience. “It was really a pleasure to have Rik and his band
at MetalWorks, and getting to see him there every day was just like the old
days,” the drummer recounts. “I always liked how Rik was able to bring another
dimension and another color palette to what we were doing, and I like the
spacious bass and drum tracks we did together. That’s what’s always been in my
wheelhouse, as far as my playing is concerned. I’m really happy with how this
song turned out. I hope we get to do it again.”
Overall, RES 9 is a
spot-on representation of the many facets of Emmett the recording artist. “I
was always an eclectic chameleon of a player. I had to learn how to adapt from
playing folk guitar to being in a wedding band or a polka band to joining a
rock band,” Emmett recalls, “and with RES 9, that chameleon is showing
off all of his colors. While there are vintage and retro sounds on the album,
it is very much about my currency as an artist. I want this record to be a
summation of who I am and what I’ve done as a songwriter, guitar player, and
singer — the whole ball of wax.”
Emmett’s ultimate goal for RES
9 is to connect with as many people as possible. “The context of this
entire album for me was, ‘Wow, somebody tossed me a lifeline,’” he concludes.
“I still want to make positive music and offer people something that’s
motivating and inspiring — and I want to do it for myself too. I need
music, and music can provide that lifeline for me.” Mission accomplished: “I’ve
got a thirst for life,” as Emmett sings on “Human Race.” And you’ll find that
thirst being quenched quite handily in the very heartbeats that percolate
within all 11 tracks of RES 9. Drink up.
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Rik Emmett
& RESolution9 – RES 9
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Track List
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Extra
Information
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Rik Emmett
& RESolution9 is:
Rik Emmett -
Guitar & Vocals
Dave Dunlop – Guitar Steve Skingley - Bass & Keyboards Paul DeLong - Drums |
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Release Date
November 11,
2016
Available
formats
CD, LP and
Digital
Rik Emmett
Online
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