BiografieAn ever-present past. A new future. Old magic and new mystery. Gov´t Mule hardly had a choice. The new album all but named itself: DÉJÀ VOODOO.

Due to be released by ATO Records September 14, DÉJÀ VOODOO is the first band-based album by Gov´t Mule since the death of bassist Allen Woody in August 2000. Moreover, it´s the first studio album since founding band mates Warren Haynes and Matt Abts named keyboardist Danny Louis and bassist Andy Hess as permanent members of the group.



Appropriately, then, this 12-track milestone at once marks a continuation of and a departure from Gov´t Mule´s complex 10-year history. And the fulcrum is more than healing wounds or new band members; risk and reinvention are standard operating procedure for the Mule.



"We´re trying to move forward with each record to break new ground," says singer/guitarist, and primary songwriter Warren Haynes. "If you go back and look at all the Gov´t Mule records chronologically, you can see that each one kind of grows organically into a different direction."



Indeed, the group´s self-named debut was pure - a display of raw power from a new band chomping at the bit to get its sound down on tape, period. On Mule´s second album, "Dose," Haynes, Woody and Abts placed priority on production. On the third, "Life Before Insanity," the group explored layering and introduced additional instruments. For DÉJÀ VOODOO, the explorations expand to new guitar tones and innovative writing and recording techniques. And yet each album remains distinctively Mule.



"One of the things that Woody, Matt and I all agreed way back was what Gov´t Mule is and how to draw the line when it doesn´t feel like Gov´t Mule," Haynes says. "And we want to still keep that mindset even though it´s a new world and a new band with Danny and Andy."



DÉJÀ VOODOO once again taps Michael Barbiero, who produced the group´s early albums including the live releases. Barbiero co-produced the Deep End discs and co-produced DÉJÀ VOODOO with Haynes, who himself has single-handedly produced several albums ("The Lone EP, "Live at Bonnaroo," "The Deepest End" and Bottle Rockets´ "Blue Sky" and Allman Brothers Band´s "Hittin´ The Note"). The production team lends a sense of consistency to the style and quality of the band´s oeuvre. Haynes´ songwriting style also maintains the heavy-hitting rock vibe that marked the band´s previous work.



Half the songs were written before Hess joined. But the other half were written and developed beginning-to-end for this band to play. The Floyd-like mellow intensity of "Silent Scream" and punchy, almost jazz-fusion album opener "Bad Man Walking" were co-written by Louis. "Lola Leave Your Light On," a Zeppelin-esque down ´n´ dirty rocker, was co-written by Hess.



"Wine and Blood" is the compellingly tragic tale of a woman´s decline from "too many years trying to do the right thing for the wrong man." The story is accompanied by a slow-burning tempo sparked by the inherent sadness of Haynes´ guitar. The uber-upbeat first single from the album, "Slackjawed Jezebel," is probably the most obviously experimental, with its bouncy bass lines and distorted voice box delivery.



Even the band´s approach has changed this time around.



In the past, the band would write songs, take them on the road, flesh them out, & then record them. On this record they simply rehearsed and recorded without ever playing the songs live. That means "a lot of fresh impressions going down on tape for all of us," according to Louis, who notes, "Now I´m going to have to go and learn what I played!"



"It´s exciting to think that when the album comes out, nobody will have heard the music yet. We´ll be loading it onto them right then," Abts says.



What listeners have to look forward to is something fresh, yet vaguely familiar. A subtle and timely call for taking responsibility, standing up for your beliefs. "He who speaks loudly will surely be heard, but a whisper cannot be ignored," Haynes sings on "About to Rage." "Time to discover what´s really, really, really right, instead of what makes us feel strong."



"We wanted the overall spirit of this album to be really pro-active, and filled with life," Haynes says of DÉJÀ VOODOO. "After what we´d just been through, with losing Woody and going through the whole mourning process and coming out on the other side, we´re really celebrating life and what it is we love about life and about music and about being a band."



"It sounds like Gov´t Mule, but it doesn´t sound like anything we´ve already done," he says. "It has the same muscle and the same influences and character. But the fact is that it´s a new band interpreting, and I´m writing songs for the sound of the new band."



Of course the new sound is affected by Haynes and Abts own musical development, but the new band members weigh heavily in the equation. The fact that "Life Before Insanity" already included keyboards in the mix was an early sign of things to come. "Adding Danny broadened the music considerably," Abts says. "It made it lusher. Keyboards just add a whole other dimension that wasn´t there. It might have been in our heads but it wasn´t coming out like that on stage. Danny just takes us to a new level."



It was a level that took some getting used to, not just for fans, but for the band. Louis recalls his own "intense orientation period," one that makes him sympathetic to the pressure Hess felt when, within four weeks, he had to learn almost 90 songs. Yet Hess´s acclimation that was certainly eased by Louis´s own initiation.



"At first I played things as I would in the trio and I´d let the keyboard player play around it, add onto it," Abts recalls. "Now Danny´s been with us long enough where I bend to him."



And in that bending, the band has found new life.



"There was a time when we didn´t think Gov´t Mule was going to exist in the future," guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes admits.



Woody´s passing was a devastating loss for the power trio. Haynes and Abts discussed their options. They held the cathartic six-hour "One For Woody" concert at New York´s Roseland Ballroom, then they dove head first into the Deep End. In the process, they attracted some high-profile amazing bass players: John Entwistle (the Who), Chris Squire (Yes), Les Claypool (Primus), Larry Graham (Sly and the Family Stone, Prince), Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE), Rocco Prestia (Tower of Power), George Porter (the Meters), Bootsy Collins (P-Funk).



Ask a married person and they´ll tell you that when you find the right one "you just know." Ask a musician and they´ll say a band is like a marriage. So in September 2003, when Haynes and Abts decided it was time for Gov´t Mule to move beyond the Deep End and select a permanent bass player, they just knew... Andy Hess was their guy.



"Having played with, at that point, over 30 of the best bass players in the world, Andy stood out as the person that really made it sound like a band more than anybody else," Haynes says. "We worked with so many great bass players that it´s a compliment for Andy. He played all the different genres of music that we explore and when we played with him, it had that kind of chemistry, that kind of sound that bands are based on in the first place."



Hess, whose resume includes a year-long stint with the Black Crowes, tours with John Scofield and Joan Osborne, and studio work for David Byrne - attributes his selection partially to his musical background. "I´ve played a lot of blues music, and Warren comes from that. I´ve dabbled in jazz, done a lot of funky groove oriented stuff," he says. Mule has a lot of different elements musically and it made sense because I was tied into all those things also."



He also notes that, with keyboardist Danny Louis a permanent member of the band since April 2002, the power trio has officially turned quartet. "Since it´s a four-piece, I really fit the bill. I don´t have to come in and try to play like Woody."



But when all´s said and done, he agrees, the key to that chemistry really came down to how the bass playing fit in with Abts drumming. And Hess had what it took.



"It´s very organic," Haynes says. "Andy has that big bottom end bass sound that´s somewhat similar to Woody´s but they have a different approach. Andy plays with his fingers, Woody played with a pick. It´s just two different things." Offering the greatest compliment of all, Haynes continues. "It´s like the first time I heard Matt and Woody play together. There was that instant lock...and it was the same way with Matt and Andy."



Gov´t Mule formed in 1994 when new school Allman Brothers Band brethren Haynes and Woody decided to explore a simultaneous but alternate creative outlet. The power trio, Woody casually noted, was conspicuously absent in modern music. Perhaps it was time to bring it back. But who would round out their threesome? Having played with him in Allman guitarist Dickey Betts side-project, Haynes suggested Abts as the group´s drummer. An impromptu jam session after an Allmans´ gig in 1994 cinched it: the three immediately clicked.



The group wasted no time, hitting the road and releasing their self-titled album on Relativity Records in 1995, followed by the concert-capturing record "Live at Roseland Ballroom" on Foundation Records.



Having split their time between the two projects for three years, Mule finally won out. Haynes and Woody left the Allmans in 1997 to dedicate themselves full time to their band.



The group´s second studio effort, "Dose" came out on their new label, Capricorn Records, in 1998.



In 1999, Mule released the two-disc New Year´s Eve extravaganza "Live with a Little Help from our Friends" (Capricorn). The set not only documented the powerhouse performances of which fans were already well aware, it also showcased keyboardists Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones, ABB) and Bernie Worrell (P-Funk), guitarists Derek Trucks (ABB, Derek Trucks Band), Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit) and Marc Ford (Black Crowes), percussionist Yonrico Scott (Derek Trucks Band) and saxophonist Randall Bramblett (Traffic) -- some of the band´s first entries into their now overwhelming Rolodex of guest musicians.



That list expanded along with the band´s sound and songwriting approach with their third studio album, "Life Before Insanity" (Capricorn), which was released in 2000. Keyboardist Johnny Neel joined the group on "World Gone Wild," "Fallen Down" and "Lay Your Burden Down," which also featured Ben Harper on vocals and lap steel. Harp master Hook Herrera (Reverend Horton Heat, Motley Crue) showed up on "Bad Little Doggie" and "I Think You Know What I Mean." And Barbiero even sat in with a glockenspiel on "Far Away."



Suddenly this organic rock trio was experimenting with more than size. Though the majority of the album continued the live-to-tape performance oriented recording process, this album also found the band exploring the world of overdubs - for both Herrera´s parts and the interplay of Haynes and Harper´s parts on "Lay Your Burden Down."



It´s a sense of experimentation that Haynes and Abts clearly intend to continue with Louis and Hess, though they limited the musicians on this album to the immediate band members.



After all, despite the built-in loyal fan base and the respect of their peers, Gov´t Mule is, for all intents and purposes, a new band. One with a future that is already living up to its past.



"When a band loses such a strong musical personality, the last thing you want to do is try to clone that person," Haynes says. "We look back to when Woody and I were in the Allman Brothers. They weren´t asking us to clone Duane Allman or Barry Oakley. They hired us because we could interject our own strong personalities into that music. That´s what we´re doing here. And Andy´s really proven that. We´re opening a new chapter. We´re respecting the past and being influenced by the past, but at the same time acknowledging the future."
Quelle: http://www.mule.net/the_band/index.htmlDiscografie2007 - Mighty High

2006 - High & Mighty

2004 - Deja Voodoo

2003 - Deepest End

2003 - Rising Low

2002 - Deep End Vol.2

2001 - Deep End Vol.1

2000 - Life Before Insanity

1999 - Live With A Little Help From Our Friends (Collector´s Edition)

1999 - Live With A Little Help From Our Friends

1998 - Dose

1996 - Live At Roseland Ballroom

1995 - Gov´t Mule

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