The BellRays Drop “Hard Drive” Single & Announce “Heavy Steady Go!” Album

Originating from Riverside, California, The BellRays have been mixing punk, rock and soul with the unique authenticity that has made them who they are today. Commenting on their new single, Hard Drive, vocalist Lisa Kekaula gets back to the beginning of what became their upcoming album, Heavy Steady Go!. “This is our longest labor of love creating a song. Earliest drafts of this song are in recording sessions from 2012. We even recorded it twice recently in the Tucson session and the final version coming from Sweet Gee Studios in Riverside. That is where the magic happened.”

The tradition that the band continued over the last thirty years inspired them to infuse their influences. It’s in their DNA. The sound can be described by one simple formula: Emotion + energy = excitement. Heavy Steady Go! strictly follows this rule but also, provides new coloring and shades to the well-beloved formula. “We’ve heard ourselves described by some variation as ‘Tina Turner fronting AC/DC’ or ‘Motorhead meets Aretha Franklin’ which comes with an expectation to be that every time.” explains guitarist Robert Vennum. “We are expected to be something that does not exist.”

According to Lisa Kekaula: “We stand apart and reactions like ‘not punk enough’, ‘not rock enough’, and ‘THAT’S not soul’ only fuel us more. We revel in our fearlessness to share what’s in our heads and hearts whether it’s understood or not. The most important thing is that we believe what we write and what we play. Our songwriting comes from a place that’s really deep and wide and in Heavy Steady Go! We realized that what we had created came from the impact point of this crater.”

This recording is split by two cities, two years and two amazing rhythm sections. Mark Cisneros and Ron Miller, both from Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds, were the first and did the Tucson, AZ session. The return of past drummer Craig Waters and newest arrival, Nico Miles, helped rearrange and add additional songs at the band’s own Sweet Gee Studios in Riverside, CA this past summer. Robert and Lisa seamlessly produced both sessions into the final product. Heavy Steady Go! is described by the two as “a festival in album form’. It’s contrasting style mashups and musical collaborations between each quartet is powerfully concentrated rock and roll.” Robert and Lisa explain that with these songs “we pay homage to Tom Petty, Bon Scott, Fleetwood Mac, Howlin’ Wolf, Cheap Trick, Betty Davis, and dozens of others that inspired this album. We wrote and crafted these songs looking at ourselves through the lens of the iconic sounds we heard growing up.”

Heavy Steady Go! will be released on August 30th ahead of the upcoming North American tour-dates with Social Distortion.