05 May 2011

Painted Faces: My Escapade review, by Eva Rinaldi

This new release by the relatively unknown My Escape is impressive.

If I hadn't of been told in advance that this was the band My Escapade, I may have thought for a second I was listing to some new numbers by the living legends... U2, especially if your listening to track - Of A Fortune.

It's frontman Jason Lucas who almost tricked me into thinking it was Bono. Let's call it his nature gift, and it doesn't appear he's trying to imitate him...its just the way it is.

My Escapade hit the Australian stores with their EP Painted Faces back in March 2011 in Hobart, Tasmania via the Hotel Soho.

There's 6 catchy tracks on the EP, which is the band’s second release, following on from their 2010 debut release Soul’s Reflection.

My Escapade had a solid run of live gigs following their March run, which saw the band travel up to Brisbane.

The band is media friendly and often makes themselves available for press interviews. They were prepared to go on record with "Soul’s Reflection was a great first EP for us," said the frontman, Jason Lucas, "but we weren’t happy to leave it any longer as our only release. We’re really excited about getting out and showing Australia what we’ve been working on over the last year. Our ambition with this EP was to get in to the studio and record some raw sounding songs more reflective of who we are and where we are at as a band" says Jason Lucas, no bells or whistles, just our songs played start to finish".

There's a wealth of talent in the band, as well as the crew behind the scenes that helps them perfect the sound and all that other technical stuff. The band was blessed to be able to team up with award winning engineer Paul McKercher (Eskimo Joe, Sarah Blasko, You Am I) and UK mastering engineer and musical genius, John Davis (Florence and the Machine, U2) for their latest project, and the end result is an EP that is just outstanding.

"The time we spent creating these new songs was inspiring," says drummer Simon Lucas. "We spent a few weekends away from home in an old farmhouse, where our only company was each other and the music. We’d get up each morning and just write music all day, record demos, and just enjoy the surroundings we were in."

To accompany the release of the anticipated follow-up album, Painted Faces, My Escapade has commenced touring their new tunes across Australia with Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and others locked in.

If your a U2 fan, perhaps one who wished they would release more new songs, this release comes highly recommended. If you like to hear the words of a song and let it take you on a journey, rather than have to put up with a lot of the racket that is frequently played on Australia radio stations, this is also one for your collection.

We think the band is going to go a long way. They have to much talent not to. Be one of the fortunate ones who get a taste of their music fairly early in the peace, before the band may become over commercialized or have to pander to a giant record label's demands. 4 out of 5 guys. Thank you.

Website

My Escape