New York City’s own The Clubs are happy to release their first full length album Outside Fantasy, taken from the “Funk It Don’t Stop - The 2020 Project.”. Back in 2020, the band released 52 singles - one every week. Now, the band is happy to share the first of 5 curated albums of these singles in a remixed and remastered version, available here.
The Clubs, fronted by singer Ian Kirkman have played for years in the busy and frenetic music scene of New York City. The idea came to Ian at the end of 2019 and to today is his most ambitious project - even more so when the world was sent into collective lockdown. He says about the idea of the 2020 project: “I wanted to do something special, legendary and above all musically distinctive.”
Singer Ian is a ‘big idea’ person. He challenged his fellow bandmates and the world “to see what’s not there and imagine a music space where everything unexpected becomes irreplacable”.
The title track of the same name Outside Fantasy seemed the obvious choice, he says: “I really felt writing this song that we were all locked up and living a double life, or a fantasy life. One where we were and one where we wanted to be.” No matter the subject of each song, the music is here to move, dance too and simply feel good.
One on the album is markedly different - Sunday, sung by new band member Sharisse Francisco. Originally planned to be a fun, irreverent tune, the murder of George Floyed had an important impact: “When I started writing this track, I thought it was going to be a fun tune. The hook I had was, ‘I only smoke weed on Sunday’. But this was right after the murder of George Floyd and every verse I wrote was in protest, solidarity and change. I knew that I had to change the focus completely and asked Sharisse if she would help me finish the lyrics and sing it. Obviously she brought an immeasurable amount of gravitas, perspective, authenticity and musicality to Sunday.”
Outside Fantasy plays on the themes of death, “Where Does My Spirit Fly?”, growth and life’s up and down journey “Growing” and “The Twisty Kind”. The album dives deep on fantasy, despair and dreams in “Mood Vertigo”, “Outside Fantasy” and “Quarantine Dreams”. A finally threads in love and playfulness in “Sneaking Upstairs With You”, “Mind Reader” and “You and Me”.
Listen to Outside Fantasy here.