How Motel Drive read the room to help create new album, 'Rescue Me'

Plus, Alyssa Witrado makes the Top 16 on 'the Voice.' And 'Are you Ready?' for Cloudship's latest?

It’s been more than a decade since Motel Drive released its debut album and a full eight years since its last release, 2014’s “Forever and a Day.”

So, this moment may feel like a return.

“There was a period of time where we were in transition with members,” says frontman/songwriter JD Goodwin.

“We all work normal jobs outside of music and we wanted to take our time putting out quality music that we hope resonates with our fans.”

On Friday, the band released “Rescue Me,” a nine-track album produced and recorded by Roberto Hernandez at The Rabbit Hole (which seems to be the go-to -place for a lot of music these days).

The album is available across streaming platforms or by download on the band’s website.

Physical copies (both CDs and vinyl) are in the works.

I emailed Goodwin to find out more about the album.

First off, who’s playing on the the album?

“The original Motel Drive members; JD Goodwin on guitars/vocals/songwriter, Jake Finney, upright bass and Chris Estep on drums, with Tom Scott on the organ and Dustin Medeiros on background vocals.”

What was the process in putting these songs together?

“There’s really no formula to it. We revamped some songs that were written years ago, we wrote new songs and used some life experiences to help create the music.

When we sampled them live, we tried to read the room and watch how the audience reacted or connected with us at the shows.

It’s been a natural progression.”

Tell us about getting connected with the Rabbit Hole.

“We were introduced to Kyle Baker of Rabbit Hole through our mutual friend Dustin Medeiros. We listened to The Dying Suns record that was produced there and we loved the sound and quality. Once we met in person, the connection was organic.

We’re really satisfied with everything we worked on at Rabbit Hole. 10/10 would recommend!”

You recently did a collaboration with Poor Man’s Poison on a cover of Jason Isabell’s ‘If we Were Vampires.’ How did that come about?

We’ve been long time friends with the members of Poor Man’s Poison. [The band’s bassist] Dustin Medeiros was instrumental in the mixing and mastering of our album.

While spending a lot of time in the studio with them, we tossed around the idea of doing a collaboration of a song that we all really liked.

We though we could do a creative take on the cover, while staying true to both musical styles of Motel Drive and Poor Man’s Poison.”

Vote #teamalyssa. Fresno singer continues her run on ‘The Voice’

For those who missed Monday night’s episode of “The Voice,” Alyssa Witrado, survived the Knockout round in a three-way face-off with fellow #teamgwen members Daysia and Sasha Hurtado.

People are now calling Witrado Gwen Stefani’s “daughter.”

The 19-year old has now made it further on the show than Rudy Parris (who featured heavily in the early parts of season three in 2012) and faces off against remaining top 15 in the battle rounds starting tomorrow.

Winners will be decided by a vote of the TV audience, so …

You can read my interview with Witrado over at The Fresno Bee.

New video alert: Cloudship, “Are You Ready”

Back in March, Cloudship debuted the songs from its upcoming “The Lost Summer” EP in concert as they been recorded, accompanied by a string-quartet with backing vocals from the Believers.

While the EP is still forthcoming, the duo gave us another sample of what fan can expect with a video of the first single, “Are You Ready.”

The video has singer/drummer Brandon Freeman and guitar/bassist Jon Napoles doing their thing the studio with the Believers also making an appearance.

The song layers Cloudship’s Napole’s acoustic jam band and heavy blues riffing with Freeman’s drum bombast and vocal wailings and gets an extra bit of soul thanks to the backup from the Believers.

Side note: The band is slated to perform tonight at the rescheduled Central Valley Music Awards.

That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM and follow my other writing at The Fresno Bee. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com