Lovefeast
S.S. Final Ship
(Independent)

Lovefeast‘s debut album S.S. Final Ship is out now. The group’s colorful musical palette creates a sonic wake of Holy Spirit power in the form of “tropical gospel” pop music as producer/co-songwriter Kyle Malone describes the band’s unique genre for their debut full-length album. S.S. Final Ship is the result of two painstaking years of recording, one of which was during the “Covid-19 lockdowns”. In 2019, Producer Kyle Malone set out to create new sound within the contemporary christian music genre, and so he planned a trip to Costa Rica where he recorded samples of toucans and tree frogs in the rainforest that he and co-songwriter/lead guitarist/percussionist Jeremy Baugh eventually turned into beats for the album. He then moved to St. Augustine, Florida in early 2020 where he finally finished the record with Baugh and saxophonist Deano Gray in the spring of 2021.

“The first full-length Lovefeast album started in early 2019 after the tragic break up of our prior (secular) band due to a bout of alcoholism and depression from one of our founding members (of the previous band). Traumatized by the events of late 2018 through early 2019, and supercharged by the Holy Spirit, Jeremy (guitarist), Deano (saxophonist) and I began feverishly recording new songs in a modular fashion, which is similar to the way The Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘SMiLE’ were created. Piece by piece. However we were using an MPC and protools as opposed to 1/4” tape! We started with loops I recorded in the jungles of Costa Rica, loops of toucans calling, tree frogs chirping, tropical beats and also my unique synth-pop key riffs. From there, Jeremy would then add the bass and guitar. Eventually, Deano added the horns and myself and Jeremy did the vocal tracks. As the band’s producer I really wanted to create a tropical sound because at that time I had just spent some time in Costa Rica where I wrote the lyrics for ‘I Believe’ (track 7), and we were also getting ready to move from Colorado to North East Florida where I had vacationed with my family my entire life. At that time, I wanted to create a new genre of music – Tropical Gospel. From 2019-2020, we released several singles which fared pretty well in terms of indie streaming numbers and online press, but we were still a band in search of a definitive sound, and we couldn’t tour due to the Covid-19 “pandemic”. For me, this record is the most complete vision of the “tropical gospel sound” we were shooting for in the early days of Lovefeast’s conception. We have changed so much in sound since these songs were initially written and recorded so this record is almost like a time capsule for me that represents two of the most difficult but also challenging and rewarding years of my life. The title of the album ‘S.S. Final Ship’ is basically a call to repentance for America and the rest of the world. It’s like the three of us saying, “Hurry up and get on board before this ship sails away into the sunset forever!” The ship being salvation in Jesus Christ, and the sunset being the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. I guess it could also be interpreted as an urgent call to jump on board this adventurous and creative vessel we call Lovefeast.” —Kyle Malone

“This album was a fun project for me as it gave me a chance to be creative on such a wide variety of instruments and toys. When I started playing with Kyle I hardly considered myself anything other than a guitar player, but as we developed this project I found myself producing beats, playing bass, keyboards and guitar as well as (reluctantly) singing. Another change of pace for me was the fact that most tracks started out as a conceptual idea rather than a riff or chord progression and we worked towards that more ethereal idea through sounds. Oftentimes we would pick a classic song to emulate, though I don’t think anyone would ever guess which songs we used as the final product always took on a life of its own.” —Jeremy Baugh (Co-Songwriter/Lead Guitarist/Percussionist)

YouTube S.S. Final Ship Playlist:

Visit: https://lovefeast.bandcamp.com

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