Will Bates' latest album, The Pirate Album, deviates from his film score roots, navigating a complex journey of shelving and reworking over 18 months. A crucial moment came when music supervisor Lucy Alper secured a sync for one track.
Bates rented a fifteen-foot balafon for a film score, but the director disapproved, leaving the tones behind. Despite this, Bates reclaimed the sketches for The Pirate Album, a return to creating music for its own sake, despite his previous focus on film scoring.
Bates assembled an amazing team of partners from his TV and cinema network to realise his vision. His boyhood buddy Quentin Collins, a jazz musician from London best known for his trumpet collaborations with Kyle Eastwood, was the first to join the group. Spencer Cohen, a fifteen-year veteran of Bates' projects, arrived next. Cohen is a drummer and percussionist based in New York. They started working together to turn the sketches into songs, trying to achieve a sound that was in between Talking Heads and Eden Ahbez.
The Pirate Album, which is now available, is proof of Bates' unwavering creative spirit. The nine songs exhibit Bates' skill in creating engrossing soundscapes; they are acoustically striking and beautifully diversified. Every beat and tone on every track has been expertly produced, making for an incredible listening experience. The album offers listeners a complex tapestry of sounds and emotions, feeling like a seamless tour through Bates' musical universe.
From the opener "Superman Hits The Pulsar", which bursts into life with balafon tones and funky synths fuelling the track, to the concluding gentle, sweeping tones of synths and saxophone in "Handshake From A Great David", The Pirate Album, is a refreshing release this year. Will Bates is offering up something new to the music scene and, after your first listen, you'll be so glad he did.
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