Their new album will be released on June 3.
Today, Gulf Coast soul band The Suffers have shared the official video for their new single "Yada Yada," the next preview from their upcoming album It Starts With Love, due out June 3 via Missing Piece Records. The playful country-blues number, which BrooklynVegan called "empowering and anthemic," challenges the gatekeepers and hypocrisy often found in the music industry. It Starts With Love is available for pre-order.
"I wrote this song for any artist in this industry feeling discouraged by the games, politics, and made-up sets of rules created within the music community by gatekeepers and the people that support them," explains frontwoman Kam Franklin. "The lyrics were written on a September night in Nashville after I had one of the most degrading and racist experiences of my career. The lyrics quickly found a home weeks later when my co-writer, Raymond Auzenne (Mannie Fresh, Lil Wayne), played me the beat that eventually became the music for the song.
The Suffers played the song on stage a few times during our tour with Big Freedia in late 2019, and we knew it was ready to record when 'The Queen Diva' sang along with it on her Instagram stories. After the tour with Freedia, we went straight to the Echo Lab recording studio in Argyle, TX to record with Matt Pence (Midlake, Jason Isbell, Shakey Graves) and Jason Burt (Leon Bridges, The Texas Gentlemen). We had an absolute blast working with them and playing on all of the amazing instruments at that studio. My favorite instrument on 'Yada Yada' is the box of rocks you hear rumbling in the intro, but I love every part of this song, and finishing it gave me back my power."
A common thread of empowerment runs through the band's upcoming album. Their feel-good anthem "Don't Bother Me" was covered by Consequence, BrooklynVegan and the Houston Chronicle who said, "The Suffers might have already released the best song of 2022 ... singer Kam Franklin has never sounded better, and the song's percussive groove is a glorious throwback to '80s-era Miami Sound Machine. It's the perfect sound and lyric for this moment in time." Recently, Franklin sat down with Brené Brown during her Dare To Lead podcast for an inspiring conversation on leading creative teams and the power of perseverance.
It Starts With Love also features previously released singles "How Do We Heal" (feat. Son Little and Bryce The Third), a poignant question on enduring racial violence and trauma that was praised by NPR's Bob Boilen on All Songs Considered, as well as "Take Me To The Good Times," which was named one of the best songs of the week by Rolling Stone.
It Starts With Love tackles issues of racism, misogyny and the music industry, while at the same time chronicling growth, evolution and self-acceptance. Written in the midst of a tumultuous stretch that saw the Gulf Coast Soul powerhouse reinvent themselves personally and professionally, the record is a fierce, defiant ode to resilience and commitment, to the passion and drive that brought them together in the first place.
The writing here is bold and self-assured, with fearless lyrics and addictive melodies, and the performances are blistering to match, fueled by buoyant rhythms, muscular horns, and Franklin's hair-raising vocals.
Mixed by GRAMMY-winner Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), who transferred all of the sessions to analog tape, and mastered by Chris Longwood (Khruangbin, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic), It Starts With Love is an album for survivors, for the down and out, for the doubted and the written off, but it's delivered with the kind of faith and conviction that ultimately transcends pain and anger to instead land on something far more triumphant and spiritually rewarding.
Watch the new music video here:
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