Yes, it’s been 14 years since their last release, 11i, but Supreme Beings of Leisure is back with a brand new story to take us through toGether. 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 4th 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 on ’22’. 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). Longtime SBoL 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.
I had the fortune of catching with with Geri and Ramim ahead of the new album’s official drop. We actually go back a bunch of years as this music, their music, is one that paints my landscapes and allows a personal walk or run or hopscotchin’ thru and so I am so thrilled there’s some new places to visit. We got into the seed to flowers way this record came to become and form, how the pieces fell into place and the process by which they work. The music has lives attached to it, with individual heartbeats of what was and has been happening immersed within. We got into a few of the tracks and their tales, their importance and yes, their grooves. As noted above, what a list of stars from many skies that became a part of these stores – so of course there were moments shared about collaborating, and a fun chat about that time Ramin got Marty Friedman’s autograph [and vice-versa]. Worth the wait is all I can advise and keep ’22’ on repeat as you go through some of these new normal type days. EXCITING.
