In an age where commercial music is flooded with autotune, synthesizers and computer manufactured instruments , one group remains faithful to the basics. Lead singer, Jason Kay (also known as Jay Kay), surmises their process when creating an album:  “If it doesn’t sound good with just a keyboard and a voice or a guitar and a voice, drop it.”

Keeping a low profile in the U.S.  and enduring several personnel changes since their Grammy Award winning run in 1997, Jay Kay (vocals), Derrick McKenzie (drums), Rob Harris (guitar), Sola Akingbola (percussion), Matt Johnson (piano) , and Paul Turner (bass), better known as Jamiroquai, will release their eighth studio album this fall. Over half a million fans of the group on Facebook have anticipated the release for months. Their last two studio efforts, including 2006’s High Times: Singles 1992-2000, an anthology of their top singles in the eight year span, debuted in the top five on UK charts, but failed to break into the top 100 in the United States.

Newly signed to Universal Records, Jamiroquai is looking optimistically to the future. After a long and strained relationship with Sony, the men are moving in a more soulful direction with the new album. Jamiroquai will record the album live and will include more horns and strings, similar to the style of their first three albums.

The group garnered regional appeal in the UK in 1992 with their first single, “When You Gonna Learn.” The moderate success of this single landed Kay an eight-album deal with Sony BMG Music. Their first album was released a year later, but their sophomore release The Return of the Space Cowboy solidified Jamiroquai as a UK musical phenomenon. Their unique fusion of jazz, funk, and acid jazz propelled the group into international superstardom in 1996, with their third release Travelling Without Moving. “Virtual Insanity” and “Cosmic Girl”, top singles on the album, were instant hits with audiences.  The music video for “Virtual Insanity” won four MTV Music Video awards, including the coveted Best Video and Breakthrough Video awards. Their complex innovation and organic sound appealed to audiences frustrated with a seemingly robotic and indistinguished music industry.

In the decades since their refreshing debut, Jamiroquai continued to release albums and performed all over the world, including Barcelona,  Moscow, Arganda del Rey, and the United States, and they recorded a live session at the famed Abbey Road Studios.  To date, the group has sold more than 35 million albums in the pop, rock, electonica, and jazz genres.

Front man Jay Kay is easily mistaken as a solo artist rather than the band’s front man, because of his involvement with each aspect of Jamiroquai, from the way the band is marketed to the band’s membership. He writes most of the songs and receives the bulk of attention from the media. Case in point, Jay Kay is the only bandmate featured in the inventive and widely popular music video for 1996’s “Virtual Insanity”. Kay says that the videos for the new album will mimic that of a short film and that flashing squares will be excluded from the shoot.

For more information on Jamiroquai’s album, set for release this November, visit their website:www.jamiroquai.com.

Check out the video clip and full audio version for the album’s first single , “White Knuckle Ride” below!

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Written by Ra’Kenna J.