Portobello Road-New Full-Length Release

Jenn Cohen | July 1, 2013 | 0 Comments

by Tim Wenger

Denver rockers Portobello Road are dropping a new full-length record this month. “We started off with our buddy Joel in his basement,” says bassist Tommy Weber. Once the recording process was finished, they gave the songs to Tyler Zander for post-production. They began work on the record last September, and after a grueling nine-month process, the record is ready for the ears of the world. “It was almost like a baby,” says front man and primary songwriter Chris Michaels.

The record as a whole represents the true sound of the band, an amalgamation of most modern types of rock music. “We all bring so much to the table in terms of music,” says Weber.

“It’s really diverse,” says Michaels. “We’ve got everything from blues, a lot of alternative rock, tinges of metal, tinges of reggae, some funk in there. We don’t like to pigeonhole ourselves into one specific genre of music so that, not only can we keep it interesting for ourselves, but for the people who like it as well.”

“We ended up calling it The Great Escape for various reasons,” says Michaels. “The typical night for us to get together is Friday nights, and it’s the end of the week and we are finally letting all the stresses off. It’s kind of like our great escape from our regular jobs in the normal world.”

The name also ties into the band’s aspirations. They hope to take their newborn record on a ride and show it off not only locally, but wherever they can find listeners hungry for their sound. “We want to go above and beyond Denver,” says Michaels. “Obviously get big here first, and then spread out a little bit. Hopefully this is the start of something better.”

They had a track from their previous demo featured on 93.3 KTCL’s Locals Only, and additionally hope to expand their radio play with this album. “It’s not new music to us anymore but it’s new music to a lot of people, so we are going to keep pushing that as much as we can,” says Weber.

As far as a release date and party for the record, they hope to do it in two parts. “We’ll probably do something private for friends and everything, and then bring it out to the masses,” says Michaels.

Adds Weber, “We’re going to try and do something a little different, rather than your average release party. We will definitely have a cd release party at the end of July. Check out our Facebook and webpage for all that info.”

The guys also maintained a steady stream of new music during the making of this album. “We’ve written a little more than half of our next album already. Even though we’ve been recording we haven’t slowed down as far as the songwriting process, which keeps the fire burning a little bit and keeps us going.” They plan on hitting the studio again this fall to begin work on their next project.

Portobello Road is hard at work progressing their sound and their band, and are excited for what the future holds. “We’ve got a lot of drive and we’ve gotten a good reaction from people,” says Michaels.

“All of us are really into it, so we make it happen, whether it be in practice or in a show,” says Weber. “Whatever it may be, it’s fun. It’s our creative outlet. It’s our great escape.”

Online: portobelloroadmusic.com