Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds are bringing new music to the fans, with the upcoming release of Mutiny After Midnight.
Johnny Blue Skies (formerly known as Sturgill Simpson) & The Dark Clouds, along with label High Top Mountain Records, have teamed with Atlantic Music Group’s Atlantic Outpost for the upcoming album, set for March 13 on vinyl, CD and cassette only. Johnny Blue Skies is joined by fellow musicians, drummer and backing vocalist Miles Miller, lead guitarist Laur Joamets, bassist Kevin Black and keyboardist/saxist Robbie Crowell.
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“There’s a simple goal we as a band set out to achieve: to make a dance record,” Johnny Blue Skies said in a statement. “This is a new and very different Atlantic Records than my last go-around. Mostly, I’m very excited and honored to be working with my dear friend Ian Cripps, and to finally bring to fruition a vision we initially shared together over ten years ago. I wrote words to what is happening in the world and my life in real time, and played with a group of musicians I deeply love and respect. Together, we made an album that is very fun and will hopefully offer some relief from darkness in the world.”
He recorded multiple albums, including the Grammy-winning 2016 album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, under the name Sturgill Simpson, before issuing the 2024 project Passage Du Desir under the name Johnny Blue Skies. The upcoming Mutiny After Midnight project was produced by Johnny Blue Skies and recorded at Easy Eye Sound Studios.
On Instagram, Johnny Blue Skies further explained the new project, writing, “Inspired heavily from endless hours on the bus watching old clips of the great fusion-funk band Stuff, and revisiting off-the-beaten-track concept records like Marvin Gaye’s In Our Lifetime, where, in what looks like the end of the world, the artists response is, ‘Let’s dance and make love’ —we decided to make an album centered firmly on groove. We started every day from scratch with a basic groove, I wrote the songs and lyrics in the moment on-the-spot, and everyone established their individual parts servicing the songs and not the individual ego.
“You can break down the songs on this album into two categories—the dark state of the world and the bright state of love. Light lives in darkness just as darkness lives in light. I have come to find over time that it’s far easier to just embrace contradictions rather than attempting to resolve them. Hence ‘Johnny Blue Skies & the Dark Clouds’ … The enjoyment we experienced in making this album of songs will be quite evident for the listener. But it’s a lot more than joy. You can call it a mutiny…an open rebellion. In any case, despite the motivations behind it the mutiny in the studio turned into a party.”
The message also seemed to address future touring plans for the group, adding, “We’re going out to play arenas and theaters with a vengeance. No opening act. We’re going to take every minute the venue gives us. We’re gonna rock this Mutiny as hard as humanly possible.”
See the tracklist for Mutiny After Midnight below:
- “Make America Fuk Again”
- “Excited Delirium”
- “Don’t Let Go”
- “Stay On That”
- “Viridescent”
- “Situation”
- “Venus”
- “Everyone Is Welcome”
- “Ain’t That A B*tch”