As part of the upcoming launch of their long-awaited debut album ‘First Light’, Ten Thousand have covered the iconic track ‘Riders on the Storm’ by The Doors. The trippy music video captures the band’s whirlwind 3-day, 3000km journey into the heart of the Australian desert to Lake Eyre. This special album pre-release is available for free download, but only until Saturday December 13, when Ten Thousand will perform a one off show playing the album in its entirety live at Ding Dong Lounge in Melbourne.
According to singer Jay Bowen the band ‘once played ‘Riders on the Storm’ at an intimate acoustic gig and from then on we discovered a deep love and connection to the song. From the inside, the song is like a portal to a bygone era, pre-internet, pre-globalisation, when music was revered in an entirely different way. The rock music of the late 60s and early 70s not only documented the cultural revolution of the western world, it was a direct hammer that broke down conventional barriers of the day. We were so inspired by music of this time and its message of free-love, exploration and experimentation. In this modern world, we think these themes of tolerance, love and questioning the establishment are more important than ever before.” The track was recorded in one take with everyone playing live in the massive studio room. “We only had about an hour of free time to record it so we by the time we set up there was only really time for one take’.
In recording their debut album Ten Thousand opted against the big studio sound of previous releases and instead decided to take on the mammoth task of recording it themselves. “We pooled our money, bought a recording desk, found a space, loaded in and just did it! It was important for us to capture a sound as close as possible to what we are like on stage and over time our confidence grew to the point that recording it ourselves became the clearest and most positive option. We did it live in the studio with everyone jamming together and just feeding off each other’. It was also important for us to own the tracks entirely, to live and breathe them and to have direct access to every element in the process of creating them. We recorded twelve songs in 8 days. It nearly killed us! We literally worked around the clock..whoever wasn’t up playing would be at the desk recording, rigging equipment, out getting supplies or just catching a few hours sleep before we’d all change shifts.”
For the past four years, the alternative Melbourne five-piece have cultivated a reputation for being unpredictable and doing things their own way so its no surprise that the release of ‘First Light’ follows suit. Ten Thousand will spread the release out over the month of December, digitally releasing the album track by track. “We wanted to give our audience time to digest each track in isolation before hard copies of the album are available. Those who pre-order will have new tracks from the album appearing every week! We hope it will be like a new surprise to be discovered every few days and parallels our journey in writing the album”.
Follow the link below for your free download of ‘Riders on the Storm’. ‘First Light’ will be available for pre-order at the album launch party at Ding Dong Lounge, Dec 13. Also available from www.tenthousandofficial.com or from iTunes.
website : www.tenthousandofficial.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/tenthousandmusic