UDR / VERTIGO BERLIN ::::: single “You Remember”, out April 5, 2013 album “New Day Dawn”, out April 19, 2013 GENTLEMAN - NEW DAY DAWN Let’s talk about personality. Let’s talk about splits. About love and responsibility. About doubt, gratitude and spirit. About change and new beginnings. Let’s talk about GENTLEMAN and his new album NEW DAY DAWN which will be out on April 19, 2013. It is the 38 year-old’s sixth studio album. Two decades ago, the Cologne-based artist first set foot on Jamaican soil and over the years he has been spreading reggae music all over the globe with his shows and is now an international reggae headliner. Over the past 20 years, the intensity of his vibes and his sincere and honest personality have earned him growing respect and the love of a global audience. He lives and shares with us his stories and his experiences. Undisguised and unpretentious. The album will come out as a standard and deluxe edition and with it GENTLEMAN invites us to join him for a “New Day Dawn”. It marks an impressive next step in the artist’s career and is the purest “Gentleman”-album that has ever been. For one, it is the first album that was created completely without collaborations or featured artists. And secondly, a lot of the ideas were developed and written by Gentleman himself. “I liked the idea of creating an album that would be purely Gentleman. There was no big plan behind it, it just sort of happened. I felt that “New Day Dawn” could work without featured artists. Which is not to say that I don’t like working with other people”, explains Gentleman. While work on the last album “Diversity” saw ideas, sound- and vocal files travel back and forth around the globe and pass through innumerable hands, “New Day Dawn” is much more rooted. This is partly thanks to Gentleman’s new love and a new acquisition: A grand piano. “Despite the fact that I couldn’t play, I put a grand piano into my apartment about two years ago and it had a wonderful warm sound. Since then, I’ve learned to transfer the melodies from inside my head onto the piano. I can play chords and put them together which inspires new songs and then I find a pitch that I’m comfortable with. I started writing lyrics that fit those musical ideas and in which I deal with many of my experiences of the past few years. I also turned my little home studio in Cologne into a professional recording studio.” A lot of the overdubs and backings, like Sherieta Lewis from Kingston, Gentleman’s wife Tamika and new band member Treesha Moore from Cologne, were recorded in Jamaica and that is also where some of the lyrics and the music were boiled down, intensified and refined, with the help of Daddy Rings, Jack Radics and Danny Brownie. Most of the vocals were recorded at Danny Brownie’s place in Kingston and some at Maarweg Studios in Cologne and at Gentleman’s own studio. “We recorded most of the music in Germany, but as far as the vocals are concerned, I still find it easier to get feedback in Kingston which is why they were done in Jamaica for the most part.“ Good friends and long-standing partners were involved in the creation and the production process which often began with one of Gentleman’s ideas which he would take to the piano. The result would then be finished together with his fellow musicians who have been at his side for years, even outside the studio and in his everyday life, among them Ben Bazzazian from Cologne who already came to our attention on the song “It No Pretty” on the previous album and who now runs the home recording studio together with Gentleman. It was completely natural to intensify this relationship even further and in the end about half the album was created in that way. The other half originates from the “Evolution”-band context, with drummer Giuseppe “Big Finga“ Coppola in the driving seat, complemented by keyboarder Frank “Pollensi“ Pollak. Two more pieces were created together with Danny Brownie (Mainstreet/Jamaica) in Kingston, and with Alborosie alias Alberto D’Ascola. “New Day Dawn” was mixed by the Jamaican mixing legend Errol Brown (Bob Marley, Gregory Isaacs, and many more) and Moritz Enders in Berlin and was given the final touches by Sascha “Busy“ Bühren in his mastering studio “True Busyness“ in Berlin. “For me, music is always therapeutic.” So, once again, the songs on NEW DAY DAWN have a unique sound. They find the perfect balance between roots-reggae, dancehall, pop and hip-hop. Lyrically, it is without a doubt one of Gentleman’s most personal albums. “The title New Day Dawn stands for a new beginning and I believe it is a new chapter, for me personally as well as the general zeitgeist. I have taken a big step towards reaching my goal of truly expressing myself through music.” This spirit could hardly be captured more appropriately than in the intro to the song “Another Drama” which was recorded in April 2012 on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. “We had played in Cairo and I was asleep on the nightliner. My wife woke me up and immediately I could feel that unique energy. It was after the revolution but before the elections, there was excitement in the air, but also a sense of uncertainty. What is going to happen with this new found freedom? Is it strong enough to hold its ground against religious fanaticism? How should the democracy be shaped? I was there as it happened and now the song bears witness to it all. Today we know that most things are more complex than we can grasp initially, that things take a lot longer to unfold than we expect. I still believe in the good in people, morals and a sense of equilibrium, even if we are thrown off balance from time to time.” The other songs on the album also invite us to accompany Gentleman on the “Road of Life“. It is one of his big strengths not to be afraid to open up, to share his thoughts and feelings, doubt and fear as well as joy and hope, strength and weakness. “For me, music is always therapeutic. I have had a bit of a rough ride in the past few years. Until recently, I had not experienced loss and the departure of loved ones in that way. But at some point came the NEW DAY DAWN when I could pick myself up and look at things from a different perspective. Often, it is only a small change which makes a huge difference. I believe that very often we move forward and then backwards again, but in the long run we will always be taking one more step forward than back”, explains Gentleman. One could listen to him and to his songs for hours. There is a unique “Gentleman”-spirit that moves the mind as well as the feet, creating a very special heartbeat. Take “You Remember”, the first single to be taken off the album, which brings together the best parts of roots-reggae, pop and hip-hop on a common foundation created by Ben Bazzazian. Perfectly placed string arrangements by David Menke and the wonderful voice of Jamaican singer Sherieta lend it a beautifully warm and nostalgic flavour. Lyrically, however, it deals with the very current issue of how we treat each other and how we communicate with each other. It talks about setting yourself apart and about isolation, about truthfulness and responsibility. Or the song “In My Arms”, which is first and foremost a tribute to his wife Tamika and as such an essential part of every Gentleman album, without exception. On “Confidence”, the song in question was “Intoxication” and on “Diversity” it was “Unconditional Love”. He says he wants to show his love and gratitude in a “positive and uptempo vibe”. Simple rather than complex, told from the heart rather than the head. “It is,” says Gentleman, “this familiar feeling that you get when the person that you love is in your arms. The power of love that holds everything together and makes everything bearable. The stuff we are all made of.” Every single song on NEW DAY DAWN is unique and has its own subject, its own soul. “Push Come To Shove“ deals with the tests life has in store for us. The album’s title track “New Day Dawn” plays with the fact that we are still here, and so is our earth, even after the world was supposed to come to an end on Dec 21, 2012, and that despite being embedded in a constant “consens of fear”, there is something that holds us together and gives us numerous options to make every day our own, every “New Day Dawn”. Thoughtful lyrics wrapped in an uptempo clubsound. Then there is the strikingly personal ballad “Memories” in which Gentleman puts the loss of a person into words and music that go deep beneath the skin. Confidently powerful songs like “Humanity’s Glory“ and “The Journey“ or tracks like “Walk Away“, “Where Is The Love“, “Wings To Fly“ and “Homesick” convey inner and outer peace at the same time. “I have noticed that while moments of joy may not be quite as frequent any more as they used to be they have acquired a whole new quality, much more intense, which gives them much more weight and significance.