Gramercy, New York City, NY (September 15, 2015) - S.C.R.D. (Sweet Chuck Ravin Dave) officially released their second studio single, titled “Downtown” on Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
The unsigned, musical storytelling duo’s record release includes three versions (Explicit, Radio, Instrumental) and will be available via a year-long contract with TuneCore for global distribution across iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Direct, eMusic, Spotify and other major retailers.
S.C.R.D. explains that “Downtown” is the next chapter of the story following heartbreak in L.A. and returning to #NYCity for the summer. This song is all about lusting someone and the lust turning into love, but then not being ready to handle the commitment with so many professional and personal obligations at the given moment. As a result, hearts break as both parties struggle with reality, emotion and passion -something we can all relate to.
“It’s funny,” remarks Ravin Dave, “this song just happened right after “Someday” released. Literally, it was 5:30 A.M. after a long night of concepting a couple of other new songs, EMCity had just passed out and Sweet Chuck was walking out when it just happened:
Ravin Dave: “Got ur keys in your pocket?”
Sweet Chuck: “Ready to rock-it!”
Ravin Dave: “With your cellie in-hand?”
Sweet Chuck, Ravin Dave: “And our girlies on standby!”
Ravin Dave says, “At that moment we both looked at eachother and blurted out, write that shit down! We then laid down the guitar and initial beat.
“We needed lyrics so we pulled up a couple of text conversations to fill-in verses and recorded a reference. The next couple days we fleshed out the rest of the story and lyrics. Initially we did not intend to include piano or strings, but Sweets sent a text requesting some piano to support the choruses.
Our initial thought was to call on Benny Harrison for the piano, but then I decided to take a crack at it for 24-hrs. That weekend, I fleshed out the piano after some inspiration from an amazing musician and friend Mark Rechler. That following week we were in the studio recording the instrumentation.”
Following in the vein of their first record, S.C.R.D. called upon their deep network of professional friends to help produce and record. Most notably world renowned violinist Marissa Licata, who has performed on their first record (and with the likes of Alicia Keys, Ben Harper, Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, Gloria Estefan, Pras of the Fugees, Jermaine Paul, Elle Varner, Gaby Wilson) signed on for a second.
To play bass, they brought Eddie Eyeball of NYC's multi-cultural alternative rap group 2 Skinnee J’s back to his hip-hop roots. More recently he has played in Gordon Gano’s (The Violent Femmes) solo band and with retro-futurist musician/artist Vic Thrill. Currently plays in Valley Lodge, the NYC power-pop band whose song “Go!” is the theme song for HBO’s “Last Week with John Oliver” as well as in the “Meet Me in the Bathroom & Tell Me All Your Secrets” all-star house band backing artists such as Har Mar Superstar, Bridget Everett, and Jenny Lewis.
To help steer the recording process, S.C.R.D. again brought in the talent of upcoming superstar producer Dj Journey who helped rebuild drums and coach vocal production in addition to providing spiritual guidance and industry insight. Dj Journey s also the founder of Trip Digital Inc., an independent record label and music licensing company.
It’s clear from both the “Someday” and “Downtown”, why this is a highly creative and collaborative duo features participating artists as much or even sometimes more than themselves. And this approach, is definitely paying off, at least in terms of overall sonic quality of the record. Falling somewhere between Hip Hop, Pop and RnB, this duo has created a fun new kind of sound that hits the listener a bit deeper than most of the mainstream, electronically produced songs. Whether it’s the rolling basslines, voicing of the violin, melodic quality of the verses and choruses or overall production, these guys have got something going here… Only time will tell how far it will go or where this little journey will take us!
Photo(s) by Jonathan B. Ragle
Contact: S.C.R.D. Email: scrd@digital-galactic.com Instagram: @scrdnyc Twitter: @scrdnyc Facebook: @scrdnyc Web: scrdnyc.com
