Hailing from Ilford, Essex, the one-man band, Singer/Songwriter, and Multi-Instrumentalist Dread Fury loads our library with grooves through his latest EP, "Catch The Wind While It Blows."
Best known for his tracks "Curse Of The Devil," "Don't Worry," and "Miss Super Lady," Dread Fury is quickly accumulating a broader fanbase through his dynamic blend of Acoustic, R&B, Blues, and Hip-Hop. Influenced by names like Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Lenny Kravitz, and more, Dread Fury is finding his own spot in the music industry with his unique blend of sounds, especially through his EP, "Catch The Wind While It Blows."
Jumping into the EP, the project begins with the intro and title track, "Catch The Wind While It Blows." The song opens with a soft electric guitar, a warm bassline, and mid-tempo drum patterns. As Dread Fury comes in with his soulful and spirited vocals, he begins singing a passionate message of self-reflection and analyzing his needs vs. wants. We love the subtle vocal filters over Dread Fury's voice, as it naturally takes us back a few decades while paying tribute to the soulful flair of his many inspirations. Singing about taking chances to bring changes in his life, we love how Dread Fury opened the EP.
Moving onto the EP's second track, "I Think Of You," we're met with more of a neo-soul vibe through the crunchy static effects, sweet keyboard melodies, twangy electric guitar, and a mid-tempo drum beat. Dread Fury delivers the most delicious melodies through his bright falsetto on this track, he perfectly channels the heart and vibrance that prime-time neo-soul captures. Listening to Dread Fury's lyricism, he takes this track a step deeper with the bewildering desire he's infused into the piece, as he sings of love, but also obsession and the frustration of not getting what one wants.
Switching up the lyrical theme for the next piece, "Problem Child," the track opens with layered acoustic guitar, strumming and picking its way to our hearts. While this song offers more of an organic acoustic tone, Dread Fury takes his time to deliver the tune's conceptual lyrical message. Reaching the chorus, Dread Fury delivers vibrant vocal harmonies that take us back to 90s R&B. As he begins singing a story of attempting to understand why a specific woman at work despises him so much, we hear a hauntingly mysterious and alluring experience as the song shifts over to a whaling electric guitar solo to end it off.
Dread Fury has done an exceptional job of delivering versatility within this EP, as he switches up the vibe for the next song, "Mellow Dance," with sweet instrumentation. Opening the song with short keyboard bursts, a haunting brass appearance, and sweetened jazz drum patterns, we feel the song's life and power merely through the formation of each vibrant instrumental. As an unconventional piano melody begins to appear within the foreground, we can feel the off-beat rhythm of free-form jazz seep through our speakers with each transition and soothing melody. Not to mention a rich organ that takes the track into the celestials, we're more than pleased with Dread Fury's mid-EP instrumental.
Bringing another soulful acoustic to the surface with the next track, "Call Time," the song begins with down-tempo acoustic guitar and the sole sweetness of Dread Fury's vocals. As he begins painting detailed pictures of facing a relationship's adversity head-on and realizing that it's time to part ways, we couldn't have asked for a more descriptive and emotional storyline, as Dread Fury places all his inner passion for this person into the last vocal track of the EP. As Dread Fury sings a tale of continuously being the second best and looking to move on once again, we can't help but feel our hearts flutter with the song's overall nature and emotion.
Coming to the end of the EP with the outro track, "Mellow Reprise," we can feel this outro tune go hand-in-hand with the mid-EP instrumental "Mellow Dance," as the song opens with the same jazzy piano melodies and gentle bass licks. We're able to sense the EP coming to an end as Dread Fury takes his time to deliver the broad instrumentals within the outro track, pushing an emotional and jazzy vibe for listeners to bask in. As the song is a short outro, perfectly summing up the emotion, conceptual storylines, and flavourful instrumentals we've heard throughout the entire EP, we're more than impressed with the dynamic range that Dread Fury has delivered within this project.
We sincerely adore the depth and emotion that Dread Fury has created within the entire EP "Catch The Wind While It Blows," as it's said to be a sentiment of his life thus far, which we can clearly feel through each personal storyline and dynamic instrumental.
Listen to "Catch The Wind While It Blows," here.
We genuinely admire the versatility (lyrically and sonically) within your EP "Catch The Wind While It Blows." When did you begin writing tracks for the EP?
Well, first of all, thank you very much for that comment. I appreciate that greatly. Secondly, it was quite a scattered process when it came to writing the EP. In other words, it wasn’t initially planned. One of the tracks, “Mellow Dance”, was originally recorded as a demo back in 2001, whilst the title track and “Call Time” were originally written in 2007. I was writing a novella in 2006 and left it for a long time. Then the pandemic happened and lockdown occurred in 2020 so I had a lot more free time and, after setting up a makeshift studio in a spare room in my house, I came back to recording those particular tracks. Then the last three tracks came along and I realized these songs would be perfect for an EP release. We've heard that you handled both the songwriting and production within your EP "Catch The Wind While It Blows." What was it like working solo for the project? Truth be told, I’ve always produced my releases and I’m always writing. I absolutely love producing music so it was fun, as always. I had spent lockdown setting up my makeshift studio, buying new monitors, setting up a new DAW system, and then I just went for it. I used a wardrobe covered with a duvet cover as a vocal booth and it worked a treat, whilst I had a great time playing the instruments to shape the songs. I spent far more time on making each track sound as good as they can so, as you can imagine, there were long days but it was totally worth it. I’ve always felt as a singer/songwriter/musician that if you have an idea that you want to bring to life then you should try to oversee it. When it came to mixing, I took a very meticulous approach. But, after mixing the whole EP, I wanted another set of ears to hear what I had created so when I sent the mixes off for mastering, I wasn’t sure what I was going to get back. But Laurence Gill [of Fat As Funk Mastering Ltd,] who mastered the EP, is a really talented engineer and was more interested in pushing the songs towards what he likes to call the “sweet spot” as opposed to trying to get drawn into the “Loudness Wars” that you get with most modern music. He did a great job and hearing the songs back makes me feel that the visions I wanted for the tracks when producing them were realized. The whole process was wonderful. Seeing as your EP "Catch The Wind While It Blows" is said to be a sentiment of your life thus far, which concepts within the project did you feel the most compelled to write about? Wow, that’s a good question. Well, as mentioned earlier, I was writing a novella that is very loosely based on my life so the songs are written from the protagonist’s point of view. So, I felt it was particularly important to write about the hope of riding the wind of good fortune when it is in your favor, which is what the title track of the EP is about. Growing up, people were always trying to compete with me or belittle me by any means possible so you realize early on that the world is an unforgiving place but then you find that adults are much worse as you get older. So then it is down to you to change the course of the narrative. There’s also the lost, unrequited love elements that I drew from as well on songs such as “Call Time” and “I Think Of You” and that has allowed me to recognize that sometimes there is healing when you accept something that is not going to happen, no matter how much you want it to. Is there a specific track within your EP "Catch The Wind While It Blows" that's the most personal to you? Was it difficult to write lyrics for such heavy themes? Oh, absolutely. “Call Time” was a very difficult song to write as it was written about someone I had feelings for. But she was taken so it didn’t go anywhere and now we’re not in touch anymore. But to write a love song that personal, you find yourself going deep within your heart and that’s when everything comes out. It was originally written in 2007 so when I revisited it, I took a mental trip down memory lane, wondering about “what if” or “if only”. So to release it now officially gives me some closure. Another hard track to write was “Problem Child” because it made me realize how insular I’ve been over my life when it comes to reading people’s intentions. That actual track sees the protagonist become the victim to the woman’s lustful desires and he ends up happy with it. In my life there have been a few occasions where I was the subject of someone’s desires but she had a strange way of showing it. I just didn’t read between the lines so when it came time to record the track it was quite ironic that I turned the mirror to myself to say “You must be better, you must do better, you will do better.” It was difficult to do, but ultimately I felt purified once I recorded the track. Seeing as "Catch The Wind While It Blows" is your 5th EP, how does this project stand out from your previous ones? What does this EP offer that the rest don't? In all honesty, I always take a lot of pride in all my recordings but this EP is my most soulful and is also the type of music I’ve been wanting to create for a very long time. With each release, I’m always trying to look for ways to push forward and make sure my music doesn’t sound the same as the previous one. So I’m always expecting each new release to be an evolution of the one before it. “Catch The Wind While It Blows” is much more of a concept EP compared to the others and you will hear just how much work went into it. It also shows you where I am at now at this stage of my life and now it sets up an exciting future.
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