I bought a mag which has a Crispian's interview. The mag always gives me/reader nice KS' interviews! And they did the interview on 20th Jan at Nagoya in Japan. Unfortunately I can't translate all of them, but at least I'd like to post what he says about the new album. He says like this...

'I'll give you a scoop today. Probably Kula Shaker itself will get bigger on the next album, I mean, we will make the new album with our families and musical friends. But it's not mean new members will join Kula, well, it's like a... I think it will become like a new project, "presented by KS" thing.'

'The next album will have Indian sounds more and it may be more acoustic album. I think it'll be the most unique and the best album we've ever made.'

Yay! Thanks for sharing that. That's really exciting news. It suggests that Dr Joel and the Companeros, apart from being an amusing way to fill a support slot, may actually have been something of a dry run for the way the next album will be approached.

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'The next album will have Indian sounds more'

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Originally posted by m2:'The next album will have Indian sounds more and it may be more acoustic album.

that is fantastic news!!!

Very exciting new, thanks. I thought alot of the new tracks we've heard didn't really fit into the Strangefolk style, if you know what i mean, but now, having read your quote, the new material would definately suggest a change in direction rather than simply experimentation. Great stuff - Album number 4 may appear this year after all .

That's great news! Thankee loads for sharing

Sounds really interesting. Would love to hear their extended musical family on record.

I presume this means a complete kula record, and not a various artists project headed by kula, like 'School of Braja' or Peter Gabriel's 'Ovo' (a great album!)?

Thanks for sharing that m2.
It's very exciting news and also fits in to what I was saying in another thread yesterday about how each of their albums are progressively different from the last.
Can't wait! But I have a gut feeling 2009 will be the release year.

I think he means it's a complete Kula (and their friends) record. He says 'Jimi Hendrix did Band Of Gypsys apart from Jimi Hendrix...something like that'. So strictly, it's not the 4th album, it's the 1st album of Kula and their families and friends?

Crispian also says 'we want to make a record which we like it eventually and everyone feel it's exciting. But we also want to hold our ideas, and now that is that, we want to do it with our companies'.

And I wonder if it'll be 'Dr Joel and the Companeros' style thing... 'musical friends' includes Dr Joel and Simon? I heard the truth from someone (who is very close to Kula) that they played some new original KS songs as the Companeros, and "33 Crow" is Simon's song. (Did I solve one of mysteries? )

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Originally posted by m2:
I think he means it's a complete Kula (and their friends) record. He says 'Jimi Hendrix did Band Of Gypsys apart from Jimi Hendrix...something like that'. So strictly, it's not the 4th album, it's the 1st album of Kula and their families and friends?

Actually, I think if the record came out under the name "Kula Shaker and Friends" then that would be a pretty good way of describing it, if the contents are anything like I'm imagining it will be. Although personally I think it would be a nice idea to release it as Dr Joel and the Companeros" (or just "The Companeros") since that way people wouldn't have so many preconceptions of what to expect. But I guess that abandoning the KS brand name completely wouldn't make much sense commercially.

The Jimi Hendrix comparison more confuses than clarifies for me though. Hendrix was esentially a solo artist moving between different backing bands, and so that doesn't really apply to KS, who I see as a group in the true sense of the word (Although I'm not sure 2-J would agree Where is he anyway?)

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Crispian also says 'we want to make a record which we like it eventually and everyone feel it's exciting. But we also want to hold our ideas, and now that is that, we want to do it with our companies'.

The word "companies" doesn't make much sense. Are you sure he didn't say "companions"? Because if he said that then that would be another clue that The Companeros were actually a test for the new album (I'm assuming "companeros" translates as "companions", although I could be wrong.)

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And I wonder if it'll be 'Dr Joel and the Companeros' style thing... 'musical friends' includes Dr Joel and Simon? I heard the truth from someone (who is very close to Kula) that they played some new original KS songs as the Companeros, and "33 Crow" is Simon's song. (Did I solve one of mysteries? )

Well, as I said before, I think the Companeros may have been an experiment of ideas for the next album, in which case I think it's highly likely that Dr Joel and Simon will be there. And I think that would be great. "33 Crows" shows that Simon can sing really well and Dr Joel would be a logical way to augment the Indian vibe (and personally I think it would be nice to see one or two of his own songs on their too; even if not everyone on here likes them...)

It would make sense if "33 Crows" was written by Simon. Of the three supposed new ones, that seems the least 'Crispian' in style lyrically to me.

I'd love to be a "friend" on the new album, even if it was just shaking a tamborine!

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Originally posted by antimaterial:
I'd love to be a "friend" on the new album, even if it was just shaking a tamborine!

Well, that's Simon's usual job, but I guess if he's promoted to vocalist then maybe there will be a vacancy in future

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Originally posted by drykid:
The Jimi Hendrix comparison more confuses than clarifies for me though. Hendrix was esentially a solo artist moving between different backing bands, and so that doesn't really apply to KS, who I see as a group in the true sense of the word (Although I'm not sure 2-J would agree Where is he anyway?)

I don't know about the Band Of Gypsys, but he might have not come up with a good exsample?

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The word "companies" doesn't make much sense. Are you sure he didn't say "companions"? Because if he said that then that would be another clue that The Companeros were actually a test for the new album (I'm assuming "companeros" translates as "companions", although I could be wrong.)

Hmm, the interview is in Japanese, so I have no idea what word he used really, but it was translated to "仲間達" in the interview, and you can see how you say "仲間" in English here (”仲間達" is the plural of "仲間", by the way):

http://eow.alc.co.jp/仲間/UTF-8/

I might have not picked best suited word up from them. I always get frustrations when I do translate something, especially, in case of "English -> Japanese -> English" (or "Japanese -> English -> Japanese") type of thing...

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Originally posted by m2:
I don't know about the Band Of Gypsys, but he might have not come up with a good exsample?

I think that's probably the case yeah, that it might not be a good example. But I realise it's the one that he used, and not one that you were making. That's life; sometimes we try to come up with an analogy to illustrate something, and then find we can't think of a suitable one after all. But once you've said it it's too late to take it back heh

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Hmm, the interview is in Japanese, so I have no idea what word he used really, but it was translated to "仲間達" in the interview, and you can see how you say "仲間" in English here (”仲間達" is the plural of "仲間", by the way):

http://eow.alc.co.jp/仲間/UTF-8/

I might have not picked best suited word up from them. I always get frustrations when I do translate something, especially, in case of "English -> Japanese -> English" (or "Japanese -> English -> Japanese") type of thing...

Well it's hard to analyse now. It may be that the interviewer misheard what Crispian said, in which case you may have accurately translated the Japanese, but it's the Japanese itself that's wrong. I did look at that page, but it's all very complicated. The word company has multiple meanings in English. One meaning is company as in companionship / friendship ("I enjoy your company.") The other is company as in a business ("I lost my job and decided to form my own company.") But if someone said "our companies" then it would mean company as a business, because that's the only meaning that would make sense in that context.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure he said "our companions". And that that partly explains "The Companeros."

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Originally posted by m2:
Hmm, the interview is in Japanese, so I have no idea what word he used really, but it was translated to "仲間達" in the interview, and you can see how you say "仲間" in English here (”仲間達" is the plural of "仲間")

Ah yes, I see what you mean

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Originally posted by drykid:
Well it's hard to analyse now. It may be that the interviewer misheard what Crispian said, in which case you may have accurately translated the Japanese, but it's the Japanese itself that's wrong. I did look at that page, but it's all very complicated. The word company has multiple meanings in English. One meaning is company as in companionship / friendship ("I enjoy your company.") The other is company as in a business ("I lost my job and decided to form my own company.") But if someone said "our companies" then it would mean company as a business, because that's the only meaning that would make sense in that context.

Anyway, I'm fairly sure he said "our companions". And that that partly explains "The Companeros."

Well, I don't think the interviewer misheard/misunderstood what he said, because the sentence makes sense to me in Japanese. And "仲間" means, people who do something together, so it seemed I misunderstood the meaning of "company". So now I think he said "companions" (or at least he didn't say "companies"!).

Thanks for your clarification!