Just People at Portland's Masquerade Ball in 2013—click to see a whole gallery of photos by Autumn AndelAs 2015 winds down, Just People are just ramping up. The five soulful rockers will close out the year with an annual tradition, playing on the bill of the sixth edition of Portland's Masquerade Ball, while they ready themselves for a new release.
Monolith is the band's "most concrete and complete volume of work to date," says lead singer Scott Gilmore. Due out on February 26, the guys worked "closely with mastermind engineer and producer Justin Phelps (Cake, The Mars Volta). Monolith takes you on a journey through past and contemporary soundscapes, creating something deep and uniquely diverse. With certain songs featuring nine-piece orchestral arrangements and others as simple as a soulful guitar and vocal pairing, Monolith is a discovery unto itself."
The initial offering from the new effort is the title track, which you can hear for the first time below. The song "focuses on the innate weight that comes with being human and the choice that we have to carry that weight or to let it go," Gilmore explains. Featuring guest appearances by Anthony Meade of MarchFourth Marching Band and John Kim, it was recorded and mixed by the aforementioned Phelps and mastered by John Baldwin.
