Having teamed up to write and produce songs with pop heavyweights such as Bruno Mars, Mary J. Blige, Brittney Spears, and Rihanna, to name just a few, the songwriting/production duo of Chuck Harmony and Claude Kelly could easilty consider their band, Louis York, a side project. Instead, Harmony and Kelly are clearly full steam ahead with the band.
"I think it's also easy to think of two successful musicians who started a band to kind of see it as a side project, and it's completely the opposite," says Kelly. "We're trying to shatter what you know about us already with better things. So the records that we've done that people know us for, we're very proud of... but Louis York and Weirdo Workshop and everything that's coming out of this is all of that on steroids, because we learned from the best."
Drawing upon not one but two careers' worth of hits, the duo enters their second decade of working together with a brigh outlook at what's to come in music, and how they fit in..
"A few months ago, I was on a treadmill, and I realized that 2020 was a few months away," said Harmony. "I got excited, because... every decade the sound of music changes, so it made me excited that I could be a part of what's coming... And it's with that mindset that I create for Lous York."
The band's hightly anticipated debut album, American Griots, arrived last October to even higher crital acclaim. The goods they delivered are a testament to the deep well of experience and total creative freedom Harmony and Kelly weild when working together.
"Louis York is definitely about me expressing myself, totally," said Harmony.
Watch the latest edition of Behind The Board in the video above, where Harmony and Kelly, both GRAMMY nominees, take us deep into their Weirdo Workshop to talk about their musical beginnings, collaborating with other artists and more...
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