G. Love Shares Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Making Of New Album With L4LM

In anticipation of G. Love & The Special Sauce’s brand new album, Love Saves The Day, L4LM got the opportunity to go behind-the-scenes, into the making of the album. Due out next Friday, October 30th, we spoke with G. Love himself about the process of working with so many guest contributors, including David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Citizen Cope, Lucinda Williams, Ozomatli and more!

Listen to a sampler of the previously-released tracks here:

The revered artist also shared a number of exclusive images from the recording session, which you can check out below as well. Read on for this exciting exclusive feature that’s all G. Love!

L4LM: Tell us about the new album Love Saves The Day… Where was it written? What was the process of compiling the songs for it?

As a band we consider Love Saves the Day one of, if not the best, recordings we have done to date. There was a great sense of creative unity and achievement when we wrapped up our 7 day cutting session. We really felt like we ‘got it’. The record was written mostly the year leading up to the May session however there are some tunes like “Little Run Around” and “Baby Why” that have been kicking around for awhile.

Love Saves the Day was recorded at Jack Johnson’s Solar Powered Plastic Plant in Los Angeles, CA and it was all about crunch time. We were not planning on recording for a couple years after the creative success of our last record Sugar, however, the opportunity to deliver in 2015 presented itself and we pounced on it. It was a very prolific, energized and inspired session.

L4LM: How did the collaborations come about?

When we decided to have collaborations on the record we started reaching out to some musical comrades. Because of the limited time we were recording, a mere seven days, we were amazed to get such a talented roster. For our previous record, Sugar, we had started the session off with a guest spot with David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. We were lucky he could join us again and in fact we cut with David the first night of recording for Love Saves The Day. Hidalgo has such a profound musical sensibility and a deep pocket so that first night we cut three tracks with him including the title track “Love Saves The Day”.

After that we were off and running. Day two we were joined by our former Special Sauce band mate and Philly legend Mark Boyce on the Hammond B3 as well as Adam Topol of Jack Johnson’s band on percussion. That day we cut five tunes. Day three we had Clarence Greenwood aka Citizen Cope. That night we cut the single “Muse” which Cope and I had written the previous December while touring in Mexico. Day four we had most of Ozomatli in to cut a great track called “Let’s Have a Good Time”. They also overdubbed horns on “Muse” and “Baby Why You Do Me Like That?”. The 5th day was just trio and editing. Day six we cut live with Lebo from ALO (those songs will likely end up on a different release) and day seven we brought in Lucinda Williams. It was a killer session. We had never met Lucinda in person and were ecstatic that she could join us. We cut Leadbelly’s “New York City” and we were wrapped.

L4LM: How was each artist selected for the album?

GL: Aside from Lucinda Williams, who we had never met and is now a musical friend for life, we had either recorded and/or toured with all of our guests. One of the best and most blessed aspects of being a musician are the friends you make along the way. There was such a great feeling of musical camaraderie with our guests and I believe you can really feel that vibe on the tracks. That’s love.

L4LM: Can you talk about some of the scenes in the photos?

Every night we would cut some tracks and break for a big group dinner where we would share stories and laughs. Each artist brought such a unique energy to the session from Cope’s meticulous and deep meditative production to the pleasant surprise of Lucinda Williams that we could play and work quickly with in getting to the raw and dirty goodness of the blues we all love. Then Ozomatli sharing laughs and stories from our many tours to David Hidalgo being this OG musician who we all looked up to. You can see it in the shots.

**Check out the full gallery below, courtesy of Nick Walker Photography.**

G. Love and Lucinda Williams